Treating Bacterial pneumonia using Chinese materioherbology
image: In the upper can be seen the formation process of OASCLR and OASCLR for bacterial pneumonia treatment. The remaining part is the schematic illustration of OASCLR against primary and second pneumonia. First, OASCLR killed various pathogens. On the other hand, OASCLR altered the composition of the lung microbiome. In addition, OASCLR targeted M1 macrophages by HA-CD44 interactions and modulated the overactivated immune response of macrophages. And Specifically, OASCLR inhibited inflammatory response at primary pneumonia. More importantly, OASCLR enhanced the phagocytosis ability of macrophages at second pneumonia by down-regulating the expression of SP-D. view more
Credit: ©Science China Press
This study is led by Dr. Shuilin Wu (School of Materials Science & Engineering, Peking University). Bacterial pneumonia poses a great threat to human health globally. Avoiding bacterial colonization is the main strategy to combat this challenge in clinical. Antibiotics are mainly antimicrobial agents for pneumonia therapy. However, antibiotics break the balance of microtia. More importantly, the use of antibiotics increased the possibility of the emergence of antibiotic resistance bacteria. Probiotics attracted much attention due to their antibacterial property and immune regulation ability. However, the poor ability to adapt to harsh environments limits its application in vivo.
Coating probiotics with polymer layers is a great way to protect them from extra environmental assault. The thin and gel-like coating could individually encapsulate each bacterium. This strategy could retain the function of probiotics. Lactobacillus rhamnosus (LR) can modulate the immune response in hyperactive immunocompetent and immunocompromised hosts. And LR could interact with microbes. On the other hand, ononin, Chinese medicine's small molecule, was an isoflavone component, which could be found in Astragalus membranaceus, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Hedysarum, and Pueraria lobata. And ononin not only could clear pathogens but also could benefit the growth of probiotics. Combining probiotics and ononin might boost the function of LR, and it might be an attractive strategy against bacterial pneumonia.
In a new research article published in the National Science Review, scientists at Tianjin University, Peking University, Hebei University of Technology, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, The City University of Hong Kong, and The University of Hong Kong (the first author, Jieni Fu, Ph.D. candidate supervised by Prof. Shuilin Wu) come up with probiotic-based nanoparticles (OASCLR) that it was formed by coating chitosan (CS), hyaluronic acid (HA), and ononin on living LR. OASCLR could treat hyperactive immunocompetent primary and immunocompromised secondary bacterial pneumonia by restoring host immunity. OASCLR owned the core of LR and the shell of CS@HA-ononin. OASCLR had a great antibacterial ability and could modulate microbiota due to inheriting the innate poverty of LR. The balance of the microbiome could improve health levels. OASCLR could increase the overall richness and diversity of microbiota, fewer pathogens, and more probiotic and commensal bacteria. On the other hand, OASCLR could target M1 macrophage by HA-CD44 interactions. More importantly, OASCLR could break the state of macrophage’s poor phagocytic ability. Therefore, it provides a new understanding of treating bacterial pneumonia.
“Specifically, we take advantage of Chinese materioherbology to excavate the intrinsic nature of Chinese medicine's small molecule to boost therapeutic effects of bacterial pneumonia.” Prof. Shuilin Wu said, “Chinese materioherbology has potential to bring Chinese material nanoparticles in clinical against various disease as a safe antibiotics alternative agent.”
###
See the article:
Probiotic-based nanoparticles for targeted microbiota modulation and immune restoration in bacterial pneumonia