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Full-Text Articles in Nanotechnology
Polymer-Based Strategies For Therapeutic Delivery To Bacterial Biofilms, Cheng-Hsuan Li
Polymer-Based Strategies For Therapeutic Delivery To Bacterial Biofilms, Cheng-Hsuan Li
Doctoral Dissertations
Bacterial infections are emerging threat to public health. Antibiotics once provided front-line treatments to bacterial infections; however, bacteria adapted to resist antibiotics through drug resistance mechanisms and biofilm formation. In this dissertation, I describe polymer-based strategies for therapeutic delivery as treatments of bacterial biofilm infections. Initially, I developed a functional polymer for delivering hydrophobic carvacrol (the primary constituent of oregano oil) to the bacterial biofilms. This strategy incorporates a cross-linking strategy to fabricate a robust yet biodegradable nanoemulsion, improving antimicrobial activity of carvacrol and overcoming antimicrobial resistance development. Next, I demonstrated that this functional polymer-based emulsion platform provides a general …
Engineering Nanomaterials For Imaging And Therapy Of Bacteria And Biofilm-Associated Infections, Akash Gupta
Engineering Nanomaterials For Imaging And Therapy Of Bacteria And Biofilm-Associated Infections, Akash Gupta
Doctoral Dissertations
Infections caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria pose a serious global burden of mortality, causing thousands of deaths each year. The “superbug” risk is further exacerbated by chronic infections generated from antibiotic-resistant biofilms that are highly resistant to available treatments. Synthetic macromolecules such as polymers and nanoparticles have emerged as promising antimicrobials. Moreover, ability to modulate nanomaterial interaction with bacterial cellular systems plays a pivotal role in improving the efficacy of the strategy. In the initial studies on engineering nanoparticle surface chemistry, I investigated the role played by surface ligands in determining the antimicrobial activity of the nanoparticles. In further study, …