title: How nanotechnology-enabled concepts could contribute to the prevention, diagnosis and therapy of bacterial infections.
abstract: This viewpoint summarizes a selection of nanotechnology-based key concepts relevant to critical care medicine. It focuses on novel approaches for a trigger-dependent release of antimicrobial substances from degradable nano-sized carriers, the ultra-sensitive detection of analytes in body fluid samples by plasmonic and fluorescent nanoparticles, and the rapid removal of pathogens from whole blood using magnetic nanoparticles. The concepts presented here could significantly contribute to the prevention, diagnosis and therapy of bacterial infections in future and it is now our turn to bring them from the bench to the bedside.
authors.affiliation: Department Materials Meet Life, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014, St Gallen, Switzerland. inge.herrmann@empa.ch.
authors.forename: Inge K
authors.initials: IK
authors.lastname: Herrmann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000517:prevention & control; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D004337:Drug Carriers