Coating nanoparticles with gastric epithelial cell membrane for targeted antibiotic delivery against Helicobacter pylori infection

Summary

This preclinical drug-delivery study exploits the same host–pathogen adhesion that Helicobacter pylori uses to colonize gastric epithelium. Plasma membrane from gastric epithelial AGS cells was wrapped around antibiotic-loaded polymeric cores. Because the coating retained the source cells' surface antigens, the resulting particles had an inherent affinity for H. pylori rather than requiring a separately selected bacterial ligand. In vitro, the biomimetic particles preferentially accumulated on bacterial surfaces. Clarithromycin served as the model antibiotic, and in mice with H. pylori infection the loaded, membrane-coated particles produced better therapeutic efficacy than free clarithromycin and a nontargeted nanoparticle control. The principal finding is that host-cell identity can be transferred to a drug carrier and used to reverse pathogen adhesion: the bacterium that normally seeks gastric cells instead attracts a concentrated antibiotic formulation. Its significance is a top-down targeting method that may generalize to other pathogens whose colonization depends on defined host-cell contact. The abstract does not report bacterial clearance magnitude, resistance outcomes, microbiome effects, dosing, gastric retention, membrane safety, or whether the strategy works with other host–pathogen pairs.