POTSDAM -- Two Clarkson professors are developing a system to kill bacteria without harming healthy human cells.

Drug-resistant bacteria is a worldwide threat, according to the World Health Organization. The bacteria evolve over time to become resistant to infections, rendering conventional treatments ineffective, and increasing the likelihood of spreading, the WHO says.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biomolecular Science He Dong and Adjunct Associate Professor of Biology Timothy J. Sellati penned “Designed Supramolecular Filamentous Peptides: Balance of Nanostructure, Cytotoxicity and Antimicrobial Activity.”

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) represent a new antimicrobial therapy to overcome the prevalence of antibiotic-resistance found in conventional antibiotic treatment, Dong said. However, conventional AMPs suffer from structural instability and substantial cytotoxicity, meaning they are toxic to cells. This has dramatically hampered their development, commercialization and application in clinical settings, according to Clarkson.

“Our work represents a fundamentally new and unique approach to the treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infection by exploiting multiple antimicrobial peptides in the form of Self-Assembled Antimicrobial Nanofibers, which we term as SAANs,” she said. “SAANs demonstrated potent antimicrobial activity, but most importantly showed greatly reduced harm toward healthy human cells. Fundamentally, we're trying to understand the molecular mechanism behind the unique properties of SAANs, and that's going to have a significant impact on practical application of these materials as a new technology for anti-infective therapy development."

Dong said the team is now targeting several types of multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.

"This paper is a good starting point, and there is a lot we can pursue along this pathway," she said. "We're excited, and we're looking down the road to new opportunities."

Sellati said immunoengineering is a marriage of the areas of immunology, which focuses on how healthy bodies function and how they fail to function properly when sick, and engineering, which focuses on the mechanics of how things function.