Weaving peptide nanonets to fight bacterial infections

Many harmful bacteria can move to evade high concentrations of antibiotics. This allows them to spread through the body and makes them harder to treat, contributing to the growing problem of drug-resistant infections.

To tackle this, the research team led by Associate Professor Pui Lai Rachel Ee from the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at NUS developed short peptides that can self-assemble into extremely fine fibers. These nanofibers weave together and form nanonets only in the presence of bacteria, trapping and killing them while leaving healthy cells untouched.

By immobilizing the bacteria, the nanonets prevent them from spreading and make them more vulnerable to existing antibiotics. The technology could inspire next-generation biomaterials for wound dressings, coatings for medical devices or spray-on treatments for bacterial infections.

Drawing inspiration from spiders that first weave expansive webs to catch prey and then wrap them tightly to prevent escape, the team focused on designing peptides that can form both extensive and tight nets depending on their amino acid sequence. In this study, they discovered that subtle changes in the peptide's amino acids can control the way nanonets form.

Image source: Chen et al. (2025), Small.