Exploitation of Antimicrobial Nanoparticles and Their Applications in Biomedical Engineering

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is a major threat to public health, which contributes largely to increased mortality rates and costs in hospitals. The severity and widespread nature of antibiotic resistance result in limited treatments to effectively combat antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Nanoparticles have different or enhanced properties in contrast to their bulk material, including antimicrobial efficacy towards a broad range of microorganisms. Their beneficial properties can be utilised in various bioengineering technologies. Thus, antimicrobial nanoparticles may provide an alternative to challenge antibiotic resistance. Currently, nanoparticles have been incorporated into materials, such as fibres, glass and paints. However, more research is required to elucidate the mechanisms of action fully and to advance biomedical applications further. This paper reviews the antimicrobial efficacies and the intrinsic properties of different metallic nanoparticles, their potential mechanisms of action against certain types of harmful pathogens and how these properties may be utilised in biomedical and healthcare products with the aim to reduce cross contaminations, disease transmissions and usage of antibiotics.

Insight into the Antibacterial Activity of Selected Metal Nanoparticles and Alterations within the Antioxidant Defence System in Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus epidermidis

“…One of the topics of the currently ongoing scientific debate on the toxicity of NPs is their potentially destructive effect on the functioning of microorganisms. Despite the huge amount of scientific data in this field, there is still controversy about the impact of NPs on microorganisms, especially these newly designed engineered NPs [7,8,24,25].…”

“…Among the several proposed mechanisms of action of metallic NPs on bacterial cells is the induction of oxidative stress by generating ROS [8,9,24,26]. Although this phenomenon has been reported in many publications, information on the individual radical forms induced by metal NPs and their combined action in disrupting cellular redox cycles remains fragmentary.…”

“…The cell wall of gram-negative bacteria has a thin layer of peptidoglycan, which makes it more permeable to macromolecules. Moreover, gram-negative bacteria are characterised by a higher net negative charge on the cell surface than gram-positive bacteria, which results in stronger electrostatic interactions with positively charged NPs and, therefore, the greater susceptibility of these microorganisms to the antimicrobial effect of NPs [9,24,27,28]. By comparison, B. cereus may be more resistant to NPs than E. coli, not only because of the thicker cell wall but also due to the formation of endospores that portray additional outer layers, thus providing additional protection against the negative effects of NPs [28,29].…”

Microbial and Plant Assisted Synthesis of Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles and Their Antimicrobial Activities

“…Srinivas and Reddy [73] also demonstrated that the amount of Aerva javanica residues extracted with methanol was higher when compared with other solvents and leaf and flower yielded larger amounts of extracts. Methanolic extracts of leaf and flower have shown a wide range of phytochemicals and higher antibacterial activity and among all strains, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis susceptibility was greater to extracts [74].…”

Antiviral Efficacy of Metal and Metal Oxide Nanoparticles against the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus

“…AVNP and antimicrobial nanomaterials have been shown to possess a range of biomedical functionalities [21][22][23][24]. AVNP with intermetallic/multi-elemental compositions have shown to actively counteract a range of bacterial pathogens [25,26], H5N1 and H1N1 influenza A viruses and the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) [27].…”