In the paper entitled "Development and Research Progress of Anti-Drug Resistant Bacteria Drugs" by Xiangyi Cui, Yuhong Lü, and Changwu Yue--under the subtitle "Other Therapies", it is stated that the phage nanoparticles are called as "Trojan Horse". I was wondering why it was referred to as such because these "Trojan Horse" nanoparticles dramatically minimize drug blockage by biofilms and drug transporters and are utilized as a drug surface coating agent to enable the drug permeate the outer membrane of GNB and be released. It has caught my attention as there is optimism that these drugs that had previously lost their antibacterial activity against drug-resistant bacteria would once again play a part in killing these germs when certain bacteriophages with "Trojan Horse" nanoparticles are used in conjunction with antibiotics.
Reference:
Cui X, Lü Y, Yue C. (2021). Development and Research Progress of Anti-Drug Resistant Bacteria Drugs. Other Therapies. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2147/IDR.S338987
I think the use of the term "Trojan horse" refers to the idea that the nanoparticles make it easier to get the drug past the cells membrane defenses. I don't think the authors are saying that the nanoparticles involve phage.
The allusion is to the famous story of the Trojan horse from the Aeneid by Virgil, in which the Greek soldiers hide inside the giant wooden horse they constructed, and later emerge once the Trojans have unwittingly brought the horse inside the walls of the city of Troy (thinking the Greeks have departed), which the Greeks have besieged but were not able to defeat from outside.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Horse
Here is the text from the paper:
"Nanoparticles are used as a drug surface coating agent to help the drug to penetrate the outer membrane of GNB and be released; these nanoparticles are called the “Trojan Horse” and greatly reduce the blocking of drugs by biofilms and drug transporters."