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Review
. 2020 Feb 8;12(2):142.
doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics12020142.

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

Nermin E Eleraky  1 , Ayat Allam  1   2 , Sahar B Hassan  3 , Mahmoud M Omar  4   5
Affiliations
Review

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

Nermin E Eleraky et al. Pharmaceutics. .

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.

Keywords: anti-biofilm mechanisms; antibacterial resistance; inhibition of antibacterial resistance; inorganic nanosystems; nanomedicine; organic nanosystems.

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Conflict of interest statement

This research received no external funding.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Graphical outline of various classes of nanosystems with illustration of their possible anti-biofilm mechanisms.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Diagrammatic illustration of the novel approaches utilized for combating antibacterial resistance.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Graphical representation of the challenges in the clinical translation of nanomedicine.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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