PNEUMONP · Nanotherapeutics to Treat Antibiotic Resistant Gram-Negative Pneumonia Infections

The main objective of PneumoNP is the development of a theragnostic system for the treatment of lung Gram-negative bacterial infections. As a proof of concept PneumoNP will focus the attention on Klebsiella pneumoniae caused infections. A diagnostic kit will be developed to enable a rapid and precise identification of the bacteria strain causing the infection and avoid the use of wide spectrum antibiotics. For the treatment a nanotherapeutic based inhalable antibiotic will be developed. The therapeutic nanosystem will be based on a nanocarrier combined with an antimicrobial peptide. 3 different types of NCs will be tested with 2 AMPs to be able to obtain a novel effective inhalable antimicrobial NS. Nanotherapeutics offers many advantages in pulmonary drug-delivery, due to the huge surface area available in the lungs and their potential to achieve uniform distribution of drug dose among the alveoli. To improve this delivery to the lungs an aerosol system will also be developed. Due to the characteristics related to pulmonary delivery of NCs, topical and systemic bioavailabilities are envisaged. A diagnostic kit will be generated to monitor the efficacy and efficiency of the therapy. Once this treatment is proved to be effective, it could then be applied to any Gram-negative lung bacterial infection.The number of antibiotic resistant bacteria strains is increasing rapidly, new types of therapy are urgently required to avoid the use of standard antibiotics. Gram-negative bacteria that cause pneumonia are one of the main sources of nosocomial infections, mainly in people with a weakened immune system. Apart from pneumonia they can cause bacteremia and other infections. Early detection of the infection source combined with the development of appropriate and effective NSs to treat multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria caused infections will definitely radically improve the healing process of patients and avoid complications for people in hospital.