Probing the interplay between the materials-biology to design better therapeutic systems

Study on optical therapeutic drug deliery models 

Probing the interplay between the materials-biology to design better therapeutic systems

The study of material-biology interactions opens up possibilities of developing technologies that are used to augment and repair/restore biological functions. The relative scales of individual components of materials and biological tissues interacting with each other can have very different biological outcomes. Micro and nanoparticles have been developed over the last decade to aid in the delivery system of small molecules/peptides/DNA/RNA etc. However, the fate of such particles after being introduced into the body cannot be accurately controlled. Spatial and temporal control of such particles to specific niches in the intracellular space is even more challenging, but such is the requirement for targeting intracellular pathogens. 

We demonstrate the use of mesoporous silica as an antibiotic carrier system and various coatings on it to confer specific targeting characteristics. Lipid-based coating with DPPC: Cholesterol on the mesoporous silica particles

are carried out by sonication method. The lipid-coated particles co-localized with Salmonella containing vacuoles (SCV) inside macrophages observed in-vitro. The role of arginine as an antibacterial NO donor to Salmonella-infected cells was investigated to develop arginine decorated Nano-carriers. We chemically conjugated arginine to the surface of the mesoporous particle and looked for the synergistic effect of RNS (reactive nitrogen species) based killing as well as antibiotic delivery. Arginine coating helps in selective targeting of Salmonella-infected cells and aids in clathrin-mediated endocytosis of particles. In-vivo oral delivery of such antibiotic Nano-carriers improves survival of infected mice and also reduces antibiotic dose by nearly 50 %.