Bacterial biofilms can not only accumulate immediately after the implants are placed, but can also lead to inflammation of the tissue around the implant years later. Implant infections are usually treated with antibiotics administered orally or intravenously, which are then distributed to all body tissues. To ensure the required concentration of antibiotics at the implant, high concentrations are required, which can lead to severe side effects in other organs. In this project, an innovative strategy is being developed to detect inflammation and infection at body-implant interfaces and to treat them through targeted drug release, (i.e. on demand and site-specific). This is intended to avoid side effects and increase the spectrum of active substances that can be used. This strategy uses specific patient’s own blood cells, which can take up nanoparticles and also have the ability to migrate into inflamed tissue.
In this subproject, we are investigating the efficiency and specificity of cell-mediated drug transport on the basis of mouse models. For this purpose, cells are first loaded with drug-coupled nanoparticles in the laboratory and are then transferred to the mice. Non-invasive imaging techniques are used to visualize the accumulation of cells and monitor drug release. Furthermore, methods are being developed to trigger the release the active substances in a targeted and demand-oriented manner on the surfaces of infected implants.