Many bacteria “talk” to each other by secreting and perceiving small molecules, a process called quorum sensing. Flagella and appendages that extend out of the cell walls can be produced in response to this signaling. When the cells sense that they have reached a certain quantity, an infection could be triggered. Disrupting this intercellular communication could prove to be a new way to fight infection or disease.
Nanofactories, tiny biochemical machines, can confuse bacteria and stop them from spreading, without the use of antibiotics. A paper about the research is featured in the current issue of Nature Nanotechnology. “Engineered biological nanofactories trigger quorum sensing response in targeted bacteria,”
Nanofactories first developed in 2007 made use of tiny magnetic bits to guide them to the infection site. The new nanofactories are self-guided and targeted and completely new, all-biological version. they’re capable of finding a specific kind of bacterium and inducing it to communicate, a much finer level of automation and control. The new nanofactories could target just the bad bacteria, without disrupting the levels of good bacteria and target the bacteria directly rather than traveling throughout the body, another advantage over traditional antibiotics.
The biological nanofactories developed at the Clark School can interrupt quorum sensing, disrupting the actions of the cells and shutting down an infection. Because nanofactories are designed to affect communication instead of trying to kill the bacteria, they could help treat illness in cases where a strain of bacteria has become resistant to antibiotics.
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