Nanomedicine Fight against Antibacterial Resistance: An Overview of the Recent Pharmaceutical Innovations

Abstract

Based on the recent reports of World Health Organization, increased antibiotic resistance prevalence among bacteria represents the greatest challenge to human health. In addition, the poor solubility, stability, and side effects that lead to inefficiency of the current antibacterial therapy prompted the researchers to explore new innovative strategies to overcome such resilient microbes. Hence, novel antibiotic delivery systems are in high demand. Nanotechnology has attracted considerable interest due to their favored physicochemical properties, drug targeting efficiency, enhanced uptake, and biodistribution. The present review focuses on the recent applications of organic (liposomes, lipid-based nanoparticles, polymeric micelles, and polymeric nanoparticles), and inorganic (silver, silica, magnetic, zinc oxide (ZnO), cobalt, selenium, and cadmium) nanosystems in the domain of antibacterial delivery. We provide a concise description of the characteristics of each system that render it suitable as an antibacterial delivery agent. We also highlight the recent promising innovations used to overcome antibacterial resistance, including the use of lipid polymer nanoparticles, nonlamellar liquid crystalline nanoparticles, anti-microbial oligonucleotides, smart responsive materials, cationic peptides, and natural compounds. We further discuss the applications of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy, combination drug therapy, nano antibiotic strategy, and phage therapy, and their impact on evading antibacterial resistance. Finally, we report on the formulations that made their way towards clinical application.

“Smart” Antimicrobial Nanocomplexes with Potential to Decrease Surgical Site Infections (SSI)

“…Smart solutions involving hybrid materials based on synergistic antimicrobial action have promising future perspectives to combat resistant microorganisms.Pharmaceutics 2020, 12, 361 2 of 36 20,000 related deaths in the United States in 2017 only and remains to be one of the important infection-associated mortality reasons [11,12]. The formation of biofilms on biotic and abiotic surfaces [13] paved the way for biofilm antibiotic tolerance as another major health threat [14,15]. This additional problem hampers the treatment of infections, most often gives rise to chronic infections, in the worst case to therapeutic failure, severe morbidity, and mortality [4].…”

“…A promising development is the combination of PVP with iodine nanoparticles and its incorporation into wound dressing materials to inhibit bacteria and biofilm formation which may reduce the above adverse effects due to minimizing the iodine content [31,48].Nanotechnology offers a wide range of medical applications including biodegradable, plant and polymer-based antimicrobial compounds [51][52][53][54][55][56]. Nanomedicine includes organic and inorganic drug delivery systems, ensuring long shelf life with reduced drug loss and low toxicity [15,57].…”

“…Nanotechnology offers a wide range of medical applications including biodegradable, plant and polymer-based antimicrobial compounds [51][52][53][54][55][56]. Nanomedicine includes organic and inorganic drug delivery systems, ensuring long shelf life with reduced drug loss and low toxicity [15,57].…”

Light-based technologies for management of COVID-19 pandemic crisis

“…Considering that: 1) SARS-CoV2 is an enveloped RNA virus, 2) aPDT is efficient at neutralizing such viruses, and 3) light is already used to treat lung and airway-related infections, we propose that aPDT is a good candidate for treating COVID-19 or as an adjunct to disinfect biological fluids. Alternatively, photosensitizers could also be used to decontaminate liquids and surfaces or be incorporated into polymeric matrices such as plastics, fabrics, paper, and paints to produce photoantimicrobial materials [ 53 , 58 , 81 ]. Allotropes of carbon such as fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and graphene can also show light-activated antimicrobial effects, including the inactivation of viruses [ 69 , 82 , 83 ].…”

Analysis of the Antimicrobial, Cytotoxic, and Antioxidant Activities of Cnidium officinale Extracts

“…These antibacterial agents are classified as organic or inorganic. The organic antibacterial agent can be further classified into a chemical synthetic product or a natural organic material [9]. Chemical synthetic products are inexpensive, have uniform composition, and can be mass-produced; however, the occurrence of toxicity, carcinogenesis, and mutagenesis have been reported in the human body [10,11].…”