"
Team:Paris Bettencourt/Potential Application
From 2011.igem.org
| Line 22: | Line 22: | ||
<p>The nanotube communication, if efficient, is one potential mechanism that would allow a population of infectious bacteria to survive an antibiotic treatment. Indeed, if a resistance appears, such mechanism helps the bacterias to resist together even before a plasmid has the time to be transfered from one cell to another.</p> | <p>The nanotube communication, if efficient, is one potential mechanism that would allow a population of infectious bacteria to survive an antibiotic treatment. Indeed, if a resistance appears, such mechanism helps the bacterias to resist together even before a plasmid has the time to be transfered from one cell to another.</p> | ||
| - | <p>A treatment blocking the formation of the nanotubes in gram positive bacteria would be an efficient drug to | + | <p>A treatment blocking the formation of the nanotubes in gram positive bacteria would be an efficient drug to <em>prevent antibiotic resistance apparition</em> in case of long infections. It could be given in complement to standart antibiotics.</p> |
<p>For the moment, the genes at the origin of the nanotube formation are unknown. There is a lot of fundamental research ahead to find the proteins governing this process.</p> | <p>For the moment, the genes at the origin of the nanotube formation are unknown. There is a lot of fundamental research ahead to find the proteins governing this process.</p> | ||
Revision as of 12:50, 18 September 2011
Potential applications of communication through nanotubes
There are many potential applications of the nanotube communication. Our project is the very beginning of the investigation, but such a mechanism opens non-foreseen opportunities in biotechnologies and drug conception.>e can already propose very new and innovative applications in the field of metabolism engineering, amorphous computing and drug design.
Metabolic engineering
Implementing a new metabolic pathway into a cell often leads to rejection of the pathway, due to the toxicity of the compounds and the over-expression of the metabolic enzymes. This takes a heavy tool on the host cell.
In order to address this issue, several labs are working on creating "bacteria consortiums". In these consortiums, each present species or strain is taking care of one step of the reaction. This approach presents the problem that all compounds have to pass through the membrane efficiently. Other scientists, linking artificial giant vesicles with artificial metal tubes to build compartimented micro-factories. The problem is that this is no living organism, and the enzymes have to be encapsulated. Also, it is hard to build and not stable.
Using nanotubes between cells would be a great progress in the micro-factory metabolic engineering. Connecting the cells together through nanotubes and having each cell carrying one step of the reaction would combine the advantages of the two previously mentioned techniques without their drawbacks.
A lot of work has to be done before we reach such control, but our iGEM project can be a significant step in this direction.
Amorphous computing
The nanotube network described in the article published by Dubey and Ben-Yehuda [1] is a great opportunity for amorphous computing in cells. This is a non-specific communication channel where cells can exchange proteins only with their close neighbours. If we consider each cell as a living computational unit, we basically have a bacterial internet.
With this network, we can harness the computing power of an entire colony but still follow (through fluorescence for instance) the behaviour of individual cells. The non-specificity of the nanotubes is an important asset for such an application. The molecules we can use to transport information will not be limited to a small number like in quorum sensing. The fact that molecules are not released in the medium is also a great advantage.
This would of course require a fine tuning of the network and the test of several molecules diffusing in it. Our designs are perhaps the first emitters and amplifiers that will be required for such an application.
Medical application
The nanotube communication, if efficient, is one potential mechanism that would allow a population of infectious bacteria to survive an antibiotic treatment. Indeed, if a resistance appears, such mechanism helps the bacterias to resist together even before a plasmid has the time to be transfered from one cell to another.
A treatment blocking the formation of the nanotubes in gram positive bacteria would be an efficient drug to prevent antibiotic resistance apparition in case of long infections. It could be given in complement to standart antibiotics.
For the moment, the genes at the origin of the nanotube formation are unknown. There is a lot of fundamental research ahead to find the proteins governing this process.
