Research Projects

Bacterial biofilm mediated infections are a major threat to the public health sector. Currently, the best available method to treat these infections is with antibiotics, but the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains has rendered most of the antibiotics less effective. An alternative strategy to combat biofilm-mediated infections and the evolving antibiotic resistance via gasotransmitters has been gaining a lot of interest recently. Nitric oxide (NO), hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), and carbon monoxide (CO) are important gasotransmitters that, along with the reactive oxygen species, singlet oxygen molecule (¹O₂), has a significant role in cellular processes. These gaseous molecules have well-known therapeutic properties too. Nitric oxide induces biofilm dispersal in various bacterial species, including human pathogens like Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Thus, NO is employed here as the base gasotransmitter, which in combination with other gaseous molecules like H₂S, CO, and ¹O₂ will be used in a combinatorial anti-biofilm approach. To date, gasotransmitters are released using various stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems (DDSs) to treat different pathological conditions. Light-induced release of gasotransmitters using photoactivable protecting groups provides a non-invasive and spatiotemporal control over the release of these molecules. Especially, using visible to NIR light provide better tissue penetration and low cytotoxicity. Hence, we propose here the development of new light induced gasotransmitter donors for simultaneous or sequential combinatorial release of gaseous molecules for the inhibition and eradication of bacterial biofilms.