Confronting antibiotic-resistant pathogens: Distinctive drug delivery potentials of progressive nanoparticles

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance arises over time, usually due to genetic modifications. Global observations of high resistance rates to popular antibiotics used to treat common bacterial diseases, such as diarrhea, STIs, sepsis, and urinary tract infections, indicate that our supply of effective antibiotics is running low. The mechanisms of action of several antibiotic groups are covered in this review. Antimicrobials disrupt the development and metabolism of bacteria, leading to their eventual death. However, in recent years, microorganisms become resistant to the drugs. Bacteria encode resistant genes against antibiotics and inhibit the function of antibiotics by reducing the uptake of drugs, modifying the enzyme's active site, synthesizing enzymes to degrade antibiotics, and changing the structure of ribosomal subunits. Additionally, the methods of action of resistant bacteria against different kinds of antibiotics as well as their modes of action are discussed. Besides, the resistant pathogenic bacteria which get the most priority by World Health Organisation (WHO) for synthesizing new drugs, have also been incorporated. To overcome antimicrobial resistance, nanomaterials are used to increase the efficacy of antimicrobial drugs. Metallic, inorganic, and polymer-based nanoparticles once conjugated with antibacterial drugs, exhibit synergistic effects by increasing the efficacy of the drugs by inhibiting bacterial growth. Nanomaterial's toxic properties are proportional to their concentrations. Higher concentration nanomaterials are more toxic to the cells. In this review, the toxic properties of nanomaterials on lung cells, lymph nodes, and neuronal cells are also summarized.

Keywords: Antibiotics; Antimicrobial resistance; Nanomaterials; Resistant pathogenic bacteria; Synergism; Toxicity.