Magnetic hyperthermia drastically enhances killing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by bacteriocin AS-48 grafted on biomimetic nanoparticles Jiménez Carretero, Mónica Gómez, Ana Belén Lázaro Callejón, Marina Millán-Placer, Ana Cristina Calogero Gaglio, Salvatore Anoz Carbonell, Ernesto Picó, Ana Baranyai, Zsuzsa Jabalera Ruz, Ylenia María Maqueda Abreu, Mercedes Carrasco Jiménez, María Paz Perduca, Massimiliano De la Fuente, Jesús M. Iglesias Salto, Guillermo Ramón Montalbán López, Manuel Jiménez López, Concepción Aínsa, José A. Bacteriocin Tuberculosis Magnetic nanoparticles This work was supported by FEDER Operational Program [B-BIO-432-UGR20, B-CTS-216-UGR20, A-FQM-492-UGR20], Plan Andaluz de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación [P20–00346, P20–00233], Instituto de Salud Carlos III [PI20–01658] and Ministerio de Economía [EC2019–005930-P, PDC2021–121135.100]. The grants TED2021-131855BI00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/Unión Europea Next Generation EU/PRTR and PID2023-151881OB-I00 (AEI, Spain). Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the etiological agent of human tuberculosis, is an intracellular pathogen responsible for one of the infectious diseases with highest mortality rates. Its ability to replicate inside alveolar macrophages and trigger the formation of granulomas, alongside the appearance of multidrug-resistant strains, impose the employment of drugs that exacerbate their toxic effects after the long therapies necessary to deal with the infection. As an alternative to conventional drugs, this work proposes the use of bacteriocin AS-48 immobilized on biomimetic magnetic nanoparticles (BMNPs) as a nanoformulation capable of killing M. tuberculosis in infected THP-1 macrophages, which allows combination with magnetic hyperthermia to increase its effectiveness. This work is a proof of concept of a nanosystem that could potentially be magnetically directed to infected areas, where it could be applied locally. Our results show that AS-48_BMNP nanoassemblies used against M. tuberculosis in vitro display a synergistic effect with magnetic hyperthermia that can completely eradicate the bacteria from infected macrophages in four days. This combined treatment represents a promising opportunity for the future development of a local therapy for the treatment of M. tuberculosis. 2025-07-04T07:36:22Z 2025-07-04T07:36:22Z 2025-06-20 journal article M. Jimenez-Carretero et al. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules 319 (2025) 145441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.145441 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/105060 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.145441 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ open access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Elsevier