Proposed Implementations
Since the beginning of our project we envisioned our device as an integrative system that could optimize the way silencing mechanism in bacteria are designed, while providing and effective and safe deliver method, for our proposed implementation we selected the nosocomial infections caused by resistant bacteria, since the instability of the public health system in Mexico invites for resolution that could help to resensibilize and interrupt virulence factors in bacteria.
Since Pseudomonas aeruginosais a pathogen that commonly develops resistance to a variety of antibiotics and specially localices in the lungs, we develop a system that would be used by patients with lung infections caused by this bacteria, our silencing mechanism is an easy to use all in one device that delivers the formulation directly to the lungs, ensuring that the bacteria will enter in contact with the silencing sRNAs. We suggest physicians use our solution in combination with traditional antibiotics to ensure the eradication of the infection, although our system will also cleave to virulence factors difficulting the attachment to host cells, bacterial motility, and biofilm formation. On the other hand our implementation is backed up by our integrated human practices, which greatly influenced the direction we took to create our project.
It is also important to consider the information obtained by the human practices data collected in our community as well as the advice given by several experts, that reveals the stratification in the healthcare system, and the socioeconomic inequalities such as, difficulties in the education distribution, problems in the physical environment, social support networks and difficulties in political legislation, this factors play a key role in health and push our project into the creation of an accessible device that could reach the people affected by this problematic, to learn more about this, go to entrepreneurship.
Once we finish with the laboratory experimentation that is left, we plan on developing a prototype of our therapeutics system that incorporates the encapsulated bacteriophages in the liposomes and the necessary components to adjuvate the delivery of the sRNAs into the Nebulizer we have already 3d printed and tested (see more on Design) this bacteriophages nebulized will be submitted into bioassays to prove the infection effectivity by this method. When we validate our prototype with the bioassays we are planning on seeking to submit our final product into clinical trials and as a commercial therapeutics kit with all the necessary materials and reagents that could be sold and distributed in hospitals
As for safety aspects to take into consideration, we are synthesizing our bacteriophages using an organism on a biosafety level 1 (E. coli TG1), and where the lysate containing the phages is used to extract and purify the M13 to latter be encapsulated into liposomes. Since M13 phages will only infect E. coli they do not represent a risk for humans and other animals. On the other hand the liposomes do not represent a risk in immunological terms as described in our Design page, since they stabilize the formulation and reduce the risk of such events. You can read about our laboratory safety at the Safety page.