Notre Dame Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Bradley Smith and his colleagues recently
found what may be a new way to target drugs and image sites of bacterial infection. While
examining a series of low molecular weight zinc (II) complexes, the Notre Dame researcher
found that the zinc compound could differentiate between mammalian cells and such disease-causing bacteria as E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Using fluorescence microscopy, Smith
and his colleagues produced images of the bacteria bound by the zinc complexes.
Smith says that so-called "zinc (II) coordination complexes" are easily manipulated and
modified, and can be attached to magnetic nanoparticles and might even be used to remove
bacteria from blood."
The Notre Dame researcher told the journal Chemical Biology that his team is working to
improve the stability of the zinc (II) complexes in blood to facilitate their use in living
organisms.
(October 2006)
