Scientists made a carbon‑based material (biochar) that’s coated with the natural antimicrobial peptide LL‑37 (along with two other peptides). This new material can trap and kill a wide range of drug‑resistant bacteria, but it’s a lab‑scale product, not something you can buy or use at home yet.

Infectious diseases by multidrug-resistant superbugs, which cannot be cured using commercially available antibiotics, are the biggest threat for our society. Due to the lack of discovery of effective antibiotics in the last two decades, there is an urgent need for the design of new broad-spectrum antisuperbug biomaterials. Herein, we report the development of antisuperbug nanocomposites using human host defense antimicrobial peptide-conjugated biochar. To develop an economically viable technology, biochar, a carbon-rich material from naturally abundant resource, has been used. For combating broad-spectrum superbugs, a nanocomposite has been designed by combining biochar with &#x3b1;-defensin human neutrophil peptide-1 (HNP-1), human &#x3b2;-defensin-1 (hBD-1), and human cathelicidin LL-37 antimicrobial peptide. The designed three-dimensional (3D) nanocomposites with pore size between 200 and 400 nm have been used as channels for water passage and captured superbugs. The reported data demonstrated that antimicrobial nanocomposite can be used for efficient capture and eradication of Gram-negative carbapenem-resistant <i>Enterobacteriaceae</i> (<i>CRE</i>) <i>Escherichia coli</i> (<i>E. coli</i>) and <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i> (<i>KPN</i>) superbugs, as well as Gram-positive methicillin-resistant <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) superbugs. Possible mechanisms for broad-spectrum antisuperbug activities using hydrogel have been discussed.