Abstract
Antibiotic resistance is creating enormous attention on the development of new antibiotic-free therapy strategies for bacterial diseases. Mesenchymal stromal stem cells (MSCs) are the most promising candidates in current clinical trials and included in several cell-therapy protocols. Together with the well-known immunomodulatory and regenerative potential of the MSC secretome, these cells have shown direct and indirect anti-bacterial effects. However, the low reproducibility and standardization of MSCs from different sources are the current limitations prior to the purification of cell-free secreted antimicrobial peptides and exosomes. In order to improve MSC characterization, novel label-free functional tests, evaluating the biophysical properties of the cells, will be advantageous for their cell profiling, population sorting, and quality control. We discuss the potential of emerging microfluidic technologies providing new insights into density, shape, and size of live cells, starting from heterogeneous or 3D cultured samples. The prospective application of these technologies to studying MSC populations may contribute to developing new biopharmaceutical strategies with a view to naturally overcoming bacterial defense mechanisms.
Highlights
Today more than ever, the global population is aware of the impactful evolutionary abilities of the microbes wandering around our planet
A compensatory response to the environmental changes [1] has led to mutations and greater skill in evading the human immune system [2], not to mention the development of multi-drug resistance (MDR)
Besides complement and its role in preventing the invasion of the host tissues by the pathogens, the antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are proven to have a certain bactericidal activity, while the endogenous cell populations engaged in homeostasis such as stem cells have a particular role during infection
Summary
The global population is aware of the impactful evolutionary abilities of the microbes wandering around our planet. The complement system plays a vital humoral role in such innate immune defense [6], which leads to opsonization by antibodies, recruitment of inflammatory cells, and direct attack on the pathogen [7]. Such an attack affects the cell membrane and can result in bacterial cell lysis [8] through the assembly of membranepenetrating proteins called membrane attack complex (MAC). Besides complement and its role in preventing the invasion of the host tissues by the pathogens, the antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are proven to have a certain bactericidal activity, while the endogenous cell populations engaged in homeostasis such as stem cells have a particular role during infection. The idea of stem cells screening or selection by new microfluidic devices would be advantageous in reducing the number of candidates for future clinical application
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