A Novel 3D Printed Model of Infected Human Hair Follicles to Demonstrate Targeted Delivery of Nanoantibiotics.

Hair follicle-penetrating nanoparticles offer a promising avenue for targeted antibiotic delivery, especially in challenging infections like acne inversa or folliculitis decalvans. However, demonstrating their efficacy with existing preclinical models remains difficult. This study presents an innovative approach using a 3D organ culture system with human hair follicles to investigate the hypothesis that antibiotic nanocarriers may reach bacteria within the follicular cleft more effectively than free drugs.

3D bioprinting ofMG1655 biofilms on human lung epithelial cells for building complexinfection models.

Biofilm-associated infections are causing over half a million deaths each year, raising the requirement for innovative therapeutic approaches. For developing novel therapeutics against bacterial biofilm infections, complexmodels that allow to study drug effects on both pathogens and host cells as well as their interaction under controlled, physiologically relevant conditions appear as highly desirable. Nonetheless, building such models is quite challenging because (1) rapid bacterial growth and release of virulence factors may lead to premature host cell death and (2) maintaining the biofilm status under suitable co-culture requires a highly controlled environment.