Guided Uptake and Release of Drugs to Treat Infectious Endocarditis by Advanced Nanoparticles (GUARDIAN)
Project duration: 01.01.2025- 31.12.2027
Infective endocarditis (IE; infection of the endocardium, the heart valves and the large arteries close to the heart) is a life-threatening disease, usually caused by Gram-positive bacteria, which poses enormous challenges for the effective treatment of affected patients. Conservative antibiotic therapies often fail to bring IE under control. On one hand, the pathogen spectrum varies from patient to patient; on the other hand, bacterial adaptation strategies such as biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance help bacteria to evade antimicrobial therapy. Consequently, therapy options need to be adapted. Nanoparticle (NP)-based antibiotic administration results in a completely new quality of treatment options for the eradication of IE-associated biofilms.
The GUARDIAN research group will initially develop a novel nanoparticulate drug delivery system based on tetraether lipids, which will be modified by attaching “stealth” molecules in such a way that interaction with the systemic environment is minimized and the NPs are specifically delivered to Gram-positive biofilms. This task is carried out by the cooperation partner Institut für Bioprozess- und Analysenmesstechnik e.V. (iba). In parallel, the IIMK is dedicated to the task of establishing clinically representative and dynamic in vitro and ex vivo biofilm models in order to investigate and characterize the effectiveness of the nanoparticles. The nanoparticles are initially tested in simple in vitro biofilm models before the pharmacological properties are characterized in models of increasing complexity (Galleria mellonella larva model, ex vivo heart valve model).
The underlying project contributes to the implementation of the Thuringian Innovation Strategy (RIS Thuringia) and is funded by the Free State of Thuringia under the project number 2024 FGR 0045 and co-financed by the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+).
The work within the GUARDIAN research group is carried out in cooperation with the Institut für Bioprozess- und Analysenmesstechnik e.V. (iba).