Nanomedicine for Infectious Disease Applications: Innovation towards Broad‐Spectrum Treatment of Viral Infections

Abstract

Nanomedicine enables unique diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities to tackle problems in clinical medicine. As multifunctional agents with programmable properties, nanomedicines are poised to revolutionize treatment strategies. This promise is especially evident for infectious disease applications, for which the continual emergence, re-emergence, and evolution of pathogens has proven difficult to counter by conventional approaches. Herein, a conceptual framework is presented that envisions possible routes for the development of nanomedicines as superior broad-spectrum antiviral agents against enveloped viruses. With lipid membranes playing a critical role in the life cycle of medically important enveloped viruses including HIV, influenza, and Ebola, cellular and viral membrane interfaces are ideal elements to incorporate into broad-spectrum antiviral strategies. Examples are presented that demonstrate how nanomedicine strategies inspired by lipid membranes enable a wide range of targeting opportunities to gain control of critical stages in the virus life cycle through either direct or indirect approaches involving membrane interfaces. The capabilities can be realized by enabling new inhibitory functions or improving the function of existing drugs through nanotechnology-enabled solutions. With these exciting opportunities, due attention is also given to the clinical translation of nanomedicines for infectious disease applications, especially as pharmaceutical drug-discovery pipelines demand new routes of innovation.

Natural Products for the Treatment of Chlamydiaceae Infections

“…A multi-drug treatment may be more effective in treating chlamydial infections than a single drug approach, and it is important to devote greater effort into exploring synergistic antichlamydial compound combinations [98], as well as pursuing greater standardization of herbal therapeutics. Growing application of nanomedicine formulations for natural products in the context of antimicrobial applications of various kinds also deserves attention and could lead to improved formulations [99]. Overall, natural products show significant potential in treating chlamydial infections and the development of these products into novel drugs may help in the global management of Chlamydiae -related infections.…”

Polyglutamic Acid-Gated Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for Enzyme-Controlled Drug Delivery

“…[6][7][8] In this context nanomedicine attempts to offer a broad variety of tools aimed to improve conventional therapeutic and diagnostic strategies, being a landmark purpose the development of more effective and safer treatments, reducing toxicity of drugs to non-target organs. [9][10][11][12][13] In this scenario a large variety of drug nanocarriers with different size, structure and surface features, such as liposomes, [14][15][16] polymeric nanoparticles [17][18][19] or inorganic nanoparticles has been developed over the last few decades. 20,21 Among them mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have gained great attention due to their unique features such as stability, biocompatibility, large load capacity and the possibility of easy functionalizing their surface to obtain targeting and drug release-controlling nanodevices.…”

Advanced drug delivery systems can assist in managing influenza virus infection: A hypothesis

“…Nanomedicine refers to the application of nanostructured materials, essentially, for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] . A diverse range of nanomaterials has been employed for the development of influenza vaccines and delivery systems for anti-influenza therapeutics [17] , [25] . Here, we present several types of nanomaterials that are commonly utilized in the management of influenza ( Figure 1 ).…”