(274b) Award Submission: Silver Nanoparticle-Embedded Polymersome Nanocarriers for the Treatment of Antibiotic-Resistant Infections

摘要

Introduction Antibiotics have been extensively used since their commercialization in the 1930s to treat patients suffering from a wide variety of infectious diseases. Unfortunately, however, these drugs have been used so prevalently over the last 80 years that the bacteria they were designed to kill have begun to evolve and adapt, rendering them ineffective. According to the Center for Disease Control, at least 2 million people acquire serious infections from antibiotic resistant bacteria each year, and over 23,000 die as a direct result. Even when alternative treatments exist, patients with antibiotic-resistant infections have significantly higher mortality rates, and survivors often have increased hospital stays and long-term complications. These infections cost an estimated $20 billion in excess direct healthcare expenses. 1 Infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria are particularly difficult to treat because these bacteria have a robust and hydrophobic outer lipopolysaccharide membrane that can impede the influx of drugs into the cell.2 Unfortunately, the number of new antibiotic drugs in the pipeline has also been rapidly decreasing, largely due to the fact that new drugs are extremely expensive to bring to market, and antibiotics are less financially lucrative to develop when compared to treatments for chronic conditions. Thus, the need to develop alternative strategies to treat such antibiotic-resistant bacteria, while still utilizing existing drugs, has never been more urgent than today.