# Development of Neutrophil-Avid Nanocarriers as an Antibiotic Delivery System

> **NIH NIH F32** · CHILDREN'S HOSP OF PHILADELPHIA · 2022 · $83,050

## Abstract

Project Summary
 Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of death in the United States each year, and is responsible
globally for over 1 million neonatal deaths. As a result of the significant morbidity and mortality, improving
treatment options for bacterial pneumonia would have a substantial impact on public health.
 The antibiotic choices available to treat pneumonia have been largely unchanged over the past several
decades. At the same time, the number of antibiotic resistant infections has been increasing steadily. The
difficulty with improving treatment lies with three major problems related to drug delivery: 1) inhaled
antimicrobials cannot reach alveoli blocked by purulent material rendering them inefficient; 2) pneumonia
patients are frequently septic, which makes them less likely to tolerate the off-target effects of antibiotics; 3)
antibiotic resistance is growing at an alarming pace.
 We aim to solve these problems by developing a new antibiotic delivery system that combines
nanotechnology and cell therapy: utilizing nano-scale carriers to deliver high antimicrobial concentrations
directly to the site of infection via neutrophils.
 We have previously targeted nanocarriers to the lungs by a variety of means, including endothelium-
targeting moieties; however, in this proposal we aim to target pulmonary intravascular neutrophils to create a
treatment for bacterial pneumonia with our neutrophil-avid nanocarriers (NANs).
 The scientific objective of this proposal is to integrate our expertise in the innate immune system, cell
therapy, and nanotechnology to develop a new paradigm for treating pneumonia, and eventually other
infections. We hypothesize that NANs can deliver antibiotics to the proper compartments in the activated
neutrophils and lungs to increase the potency of the cargo antibiotic. The aims are thus: 1) Determine the
mechanism of interaction between NANs and neutrophils in vitro. 2) Assess directed-antibiotic delivery by
NANs.
 The proposal’s other key objective is to train the candidate in innate immunity and nanomedicine drug
delivery. This will comprise coursework, individualized mentoring, and hands-on training in tools such as
nanocarrier production, analytical chemistry, and animal models of pneumonia.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10445256
- **Project number:** 5F32HL151026-03
- **Recipient organization:** CHILDREN'S HOSP OF PHILADELPHIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Kathryn Rubey
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $83,050
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-07-06 → 2023-07-05

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10445256

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10445256, Development of Neutrophil-Avid Nanocarriers as an Antibiotic Delivery System (5F32HL151026-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10445256. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*