Magnetotactic T-Budbots to Kill-n-Clean Biofilms

Abstract

Treatment of persistent biofilm infections has turned out to be a formidable challenge even with broad-spectrum antibiotic therapies. In this direction, intelligent micromachines may serve as active mechanical means to dislodge such deleterious bacterial communities. Herein, we have designed biocompatible micromotors from tea buds, namely, T-Budbots, which shows the capacity to be magnetically driven on a biofilm matrix and remove or fragment biofilms with precision, as a part of the proposed non-invasive "Kill-n-Clean" strategy. In a way, we present a bactericidal robotic platform decorated with magnetite nanoparticles aimed at clearing in vitro biofilms present on the surfaces. We have also shown that the smart porous T-Budbots can integrate antibiotic ciprofloxacin due to electrostatic interaction on their surface to increase their antibacterial efficacy against dreadful pathogenic bacterial communities of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. It is noteworthy that the release of this drug can be controlled by tuning the surrounding pH of the T-Budbots. For example, while the acidic environment of the biofilm facilitates the release of antibiotics from the porous T-Budbots, the drug release was rather minimal at higher pH. The work represents a first step in the involvement of a plant-based microbot exhibiting magneto-robotic therapeutic properties, providing a non-invasive and safe approach to dismantle harmful biofilm infections.

Dual‐Propelled Lanbiotic Based Janus Micromotors for Selective Inactivation of Bacterial Biofilms

“…do not move along the whole solution or exert the drag and catch effect), only a small region of the micromotor modified with Nisin interact with the bacteria, showing such lower deactivation effect in such a short time [21,29] . In the formation biofilms‐based experiments, biofilms are grown along with the micromotors for a long time, modified motors have more time for inactivation even though they are static [30] . Also please notice that such differences among them are not very significant.…”

Dual‐Propelled Lanbiotic Based Janus Micromotors for Selective Inactivation of Bacterial Biofilms

“…[21,29] In the formation biofilms-based experiments,b iofilms are grown along with the micromotors for along time,modified motors have more time for inactivation even though they are static. [30] Also please notice that such differences among them are not very significant.…”

Magnetically Driven Micro and Nanorobots

“…(B) Linear footprints left on the surface of P. aeruginosa biofilm after the motion of MagRobots. Reproduced with permission from ref ( 352 ). Copyright 2020 American Chemical Society.…”