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Nanobiotechnology 2018
Page 64
Nano Research & Applications
ISSN: 2471-9838
E u r o S c i C o n C o n f e r e n c e o n
Nanotech & Nanobiotechnology
J u l y 1 2 - 1 3 , 2 0 1 8
P a r i s , F r a n c e
T
he emergence of pathogenic bacteria resistant to most, if not all, currently available antimicrobial agents has become a
critical problem in modern medicine. As we are apparently entering the post-antibiotics era, the development of alternative
antibacterial therapies is of the utmost importance. One of the alternatives that have been exploring is the antisense technology
that is based on the introduction of an oligonucleotide complementary to a given mRNA, thereby inhibiting translation. The
development of a new generation of nucleic acid mimics (NAMs) with promising antisense characteristics together with several
studies reporting successful modifcations of gene expression has put the antisense technology in the spotlight. In fact, some
of these molecules are already being developed for therapeutic applications
in vivo
, and protocols involving hybridization inside
higher-order animals are available. The success of the antisense technique using NAMs obtained in eukaryotic cells has not been
reproduced in microorganisms. In fact, all studies in microorganisms have so far showed limited ability to completely eliminate
bacterial populations in a reproducible way. This might be due to a multitude of factors, and several studies have shown that
the diffculty of these mimics to cross the bacterial cell envelope as one of the most critical factors. This work focus on the
development of an integrated approach focused on the targeted delivery of different nucleic acid mimics using multiple delivery
strategies into microorganisms. We will discuss and compare not only the influence of different nucleic acid mimics, such as
peptide nucleic acids (PNA), locked nucleic acids (LNA) and 2´-O-Methyl-RNA, but also of different delivery strategies such as
liposomes/nanoparticles and cell penetrating peptides (CPPs).
nazevedo@fe.up.ptApplication of nucleic acid mimics in the
treatment of bacteria
Nuno M Guimaraes and Nuno F Azevedo
University of Porto, Portugal
Nano Res Appl 2018, Volume 4
DOI: 10.21767/2471-9838-C2-012