IIT Roorkee develops nanobiotic platform to combat bacterial pathogens

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) researchers have developed a multimodal nanobiotic platform which combats bacterial pathogens. The nanoplatform leverages the synergistic antibacterial activity of a food-grade peptide to mitigate multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens. The technology platform has been shown to have applications in the health sector and food packaging.

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“The team used pediocin; a class IIa bacteriocin to decorate silver (Ag°)nanoparticles and developed a double-edged nano-platform (Pd-SNPs) that inherits intrinsic properties of both antibacterial moieties, which engenders strikingly high antibacterial potency against a broad spectrum of bacterial pathogens including the ESKAPE category (six antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens) without displaying adverse cytotoxicityto mammalian cells,” said an official statement from the IIT Roorkee.

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The research team that contributed to the study from IIT Roorkee are Professor Naveen Kumar Navani, Chemical Biology Laboratory, Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering and Adjunct Faculty, Centre of Nanotechnology; Piyush Kumar, Arshad Ali Shaikh, Pardeep Kumar, Rajat Dhyani, Tarun Kumar Sharma,Ajmal Hussain, Chemical Biology Laboratory, Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering; Vivek Kumar Gupta, Ranjana Pathania, Molecular Bacteriology and Chemical Genetics Laboratory, Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering;KrishnakantGangele, Krishana Mohan Poluri, Mechanistic Biological Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering.

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Professor Ajit K Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee, said, “I would like to congratulate the research team at IIT Roorkee for their novel idea towards developing a vehicle to mitigate persistant bacterial infections. This will open up new avenues for combating a wide range of pathogens in the health or food sector.”