Abstract
Nanocarrier (NC)‐mediated drug delivery is widely researched in medicine but to date has not been used in agriculture. The first curative NC‐based treatment of the worldwide occurring grapevine trunk disease Esca, with more than 2 billion infected plants causing a loss yearly of $1.5 billion, is presented. To date, only repetitive spraying of fungicides is used to reduce chances of infection. This long‐term treatment against Esca uses minimal amounts of fungicide encapsulated in biobased and biodegradable lignin NCs. A single trunk injection of <10 mg fungicide results in curing of an infected plant. Only upon Esca infection, ligninolytic enzymes, secreted by the Esca‐associated fungi, degrade the lignin NC to release the fungicide. The specific antifungal activity is confirmed in vitro and in planta (in Vitis vinifera L. cv. ‘Portugieser’). All treated plants prove to exhibit significantly fewer symptoms several weeks after treatment, and their condition is monitored for 5 years (2014–2018), proving a long‐term curative effect of this NC treatment. This study proves the efficacy of this NC‐mediated drug delivery for agriculture, using a minimum amount of fungicides. It is believed that this concept can be extended to other plant diseases worldwide to reduce extensive spraying of agrochemicals.
Highlights
This study proves the efficacy of this NC-mediated drug delivery for agriculture, using a minimum amount of fungicides
This work presents a general approach for NC-mediated drug delivery in living plants
Using minimal amounts of fungicide compared to a preventive spraying strategy, this concept successfully acted as the first curative treatment for a GTD “Esca.” With lignin as the matrix of the NCs, the Esca-associated fungi degraded the trunk of the grapevine plant and the NC sufficiently, which results in an enzyme-responsive drug release
Summary
Targeted Drug Delivery in Plants: Enzyme-Responsive Lignin Nanocarriers for the Curative Treatment of the Worldwide Grapevine Trunk Disease Esca. If the NCs are composed of a nutrient for the pathogen, they will be consumed and degraded by the enzymes, which trigger “unintentionally” a drug release (Scheme 1A) This strategy releases a drug this concept can be extended to other plant diseases worldwide to reduce only after an infection and may act as a extensive spraying of agrochemicals. This is the first demonstration treating Esca-infected grapevine with a minimum amount of 10 mg fungicide and a single dose treatment We believe that this general strategy of NC-mediated drug delivery enabling a selective release by pathogen-specific enzymes can be further extended to other plant diseases and will facilitate reducing the extensive amounts of agrochemicals distributed by conventional spraying
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