NanoNeedle- a novel tool to tackle antibiotic-resistant bacteria


In 2014, WHO stated that antibiotic resistance becomes a serious worldwide issue. Therefore we design a hollow tube called NanoNeedle to tackle antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This device is divided into two sturctures: Weak and Strong. The weak structure, more flexible and bendable, consists of 12 double-helical DNA domains. The interior of the weak structure is bound to 3 with-increasing-affinity aptamers; and the plasmid, connected by one of them, carries suicide genes. The strong structure consisting of 30 double-helical DNA domains is robust enough to penetrate through the cell wall and the membrane of bacteria. When meeting target bacteria, 3 aptamers inside NanoNeedle will specifically identify and sequentially bind to the cell wall of target bacteria. Subsequent to the weak structure bending stepwise, the strong structure protrudes centrally, penetrates the membrane and delivers the plasmid into the bacteria. After the suicide genes being expressed, they kill the bacteria by destroying the maintenance of physiological functions. NanoNeedle is a versatile device since it can change different aptamers and suicide genes for various targeted antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Eventually, we expect to eliminate bacteria by delivering NanoNeedle into patients suffered from bacterial infection, and developed to as the substitute of antibiotics.