Scientists Advance Use of Nanoparticles Against Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat Munster Study

Medical Device link -- Researchers at Westfalische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (WWU; Germany) and the Center for NanoTechnology GmbH (CeNTech; Münster, Germany) have developed a new nanotechnology material, zeolite-L-nanocrystalstha, that kills antibiotic-resitant bacteria. The effectiveness of the nanoparticles is based on photodynamic therapy, in which exposure to light sets off a reaction that kills bacterial cells. The researchers also attach a third material to the nanocrystals that is activated by red light and produces aggressive oxygen molecules. These oxygen molecules—“singlet oxygen”—start a chain reaction that destroys bacterial cells.

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