Oh lord, What an invention! This is HUGE! Anders H the wizard! Many Thanks for great work!
This is extract taken from your link under the subject description:
"This method of the invention is particularly advantageous because it is not a complex method and may be used with a variety of antibacterial agents and different target bacteria. It also allows the use of lower concentrations of the antibacterial agent than is required for conventional methods, whilst achieving effective antibiotic effects. This prevents resistance development. Furthermore, the timing and location of irradiation to release the molecules may be controlled such that it is released only at the time and location that is desired to achieve the required effects. As such, exposure of cells to the various components is minimised, and undesirable side effects are minimised. This is in contrast to the standard techniques for antibacterial treatment, where it is not possible to control the timing and location of the release of the various components and high concentrations of the various components and/or their carriers are needed.
Infectious diseases associated with intracellular survival of bacterial pathogens can occur or relapse at different sites of the human body (e.g. skin, deep tissues, urinary tract and lung). In addition to professional phagocytes, nonprofessional phagocytic cells such as epithelial cells, endothelial cells, osteoblasts and fibroblasts also can be niches of intracellular bacteria. The PCI method of the invention may be achieved at a specific location by applying light at the site of infection or at the location of the cells in which intracellular bacteria reside. In this way, the method may be used for treatment of (sub)cutaneous skin or mucosal infections/damages such as chronic wounds, ulcers, abscesses and diabetic foot infection as well as oral and nasal infections such as chronic rhinosinusitis and periodontitis, where the site of infection is relatively accessible for light. Infection in internal organs (e.g. lungs) or in deep tissue areas may be treated using light administered by fiber optic devices, for example."
In the present study, it is speculated that after rupturing the endosomes containing antibiotics, (part of) the dissociated photosensitizers may re-localize to the membranes of phagosomes containing bacteria and also rupture these membranes during the illumination period. Therefore, at least a portion of the bacteria residing in phagosomes may be released into the cytosol and killed by gentamicin more rapidly. It is also possible that during PCI the vesicles ruptured by the light-activation of photosensitizer might intracellularly fuse with intact other vesicles to cause the intact ones also to become leaky/ruptured, even without additional illumination. Such fusion therefore may also (partially) contribute to the cytosolic release of both bacteria and antibiotics, facilitating the intracellular antimicrobial action. Thus, based on these experiments, PCI can be expected also to improve the intracellular activity of other antibiotics such as vancomycin, oritavancin and various macrolides. This consequently may prevent resistance development due to low, permissive concentrations of such antibiotics inside cells. PCI therefore can increase the number of antibiotics which can successfully treat intracellular infection. In addition, the required doses of antibiotics may be reduced using PCI.
The present experiment illustrates that PCI may be used to improve the antibiotic treatment of intracellular infection and help prevent resistance development.