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 184 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019
Conquering Biofilms! Nanobiotics vs Antibiotics
  Ms. Anju S.*
Email: anjuhooda.ah@gmail.com
Science of therapeutics has galloped after the discovery of “wonder drug” Penicillin. Thereafter, an era of antibiotics provided
a respite in treatment of bacterial infections. However, new challenges have surfaced due to emergence of multi-drug resistant bacteria. Usually, prolonged use of an antibiotic becomes ineffective against a particular bacterial species due to development of “drug resistance”. Bacteria develop resistance to an antibiotic by inactivating either the active component of the drug, or by modifying, the target site in the bacterial system. The expression of drug resistance in bacteria is a result of diversified mechanisms. This may include release of bacterial enzymes to inactivate an antibiotic, alteration of the cell structures to make the drug impermeable in
to a microbial system, or the bacteria may promote an alternate metabolic pathway so as to remain unaffected by a drug.
Several strategies have been identified over the years with regard to occurrence and spread of drug resistance. One of the most outstanding reasons promoting resistance to adrugistheabilityofbacteriatoflourishas a community of static form called “biofilms”. Introspection of these communities helped us understand that the bacteria in the biofilms have a differential gene expression, notable regulatory systems and quorum- sensing system that play a fundamental role in the development of biofilms. For a long time, planktonic cultures were used to study microbial interactions. As the concept of biofilms came into existence, study of bacterial
 * Ms. Anju S., PhD Scholar from Osmania University, Telangana, is pursuing her research on “Evaluation of Biofilm Dispersal Activity by Metal Nanoparticles Fabricated with Phytochemical Quorum Sensing Inhibitors using Nanotechnological Approaches”. Her popular science story entitled “Conquering Biofilms! - Nanobiotics vs Antibiotics” has been selected for AWSAR Award.


























































































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