ReportFighting harmful bacteria with nanoparticles
Multi-resistant pathogens are a serious and increasing problem in today’s medicine. Where antibiotics are ineffective, these bacteria can cause life-threatening infections. Researchers at Empa and ETH Zurich are currently developing nanoparticles that can be used to detect and kill multi-resistant pathogens that hide inside our body cells. The team published the study in the current issue of the journal Nanoscale.
The increasing number of staphylococcal infections that no longer respond to treatment with antibiotics is particularly precarious. MRSA, multi-resistant germs, are particularly feared in hospitals where, as nosocomial pathogens, they cause poorly treatable wound infections or colonize catheters and other medical equipment. In total, around 75,000 hospital infections occur in Switzerland every year, 12,000 of which are fatal. Check the full article here.
Image: ‘Deadly contact: Researchers at Empa and ETH have developed nanoparticles (red) that can kill resistant bacteria (yellow)’; Empa, colored electron microscopy image
