Nanotechnology as an Effective Tool for Antimicrobial Applications: Current Research and Challenges

The prevention and treatment of bacterial infections is a matter of great concern. The high use of antimicrobials/antibiotics for treating bacterial infections in recent years also poses a great risk of developing resistance in many bacterial species. It was also reported that biofilm formation by bacteria prevents the entry of antibiotics and also helps bacteria to develop resistance against any applied antibiotic, making the treatment more difficult. All the current approaches have shown inadequacy to overcome the challenges presented by pathogenic microbes. Therefore, adoption of a better method/strategy to face these challenges is the need of the hour. As per reports, nanotechnology has shown tremendous success in many fields. Moreover, in the last few years, the research highlighted the potential of nanotechnology as an effective tool for antimicrobial applications. Metallic nanoparticles and their oxides such as silver (AgNPs), zinc (ZnAgNPs), gold (AuNPs), iron (FeNPs), copper (CuNPs), titanium (TiNPs), zinc oxide (ZnO-NPs), magnesium oxide (MgO), titanium dioxide (TiO2-NPs), copper oxides (CuO-NPs) and iron oxides (Fe2O3-NPs) are considered effective nano-materials against pathogenic microbes. It was observed that the higher surface area to volume ratio of nanoparticles, the way they interact with bacterial membranes/cell wall and their various antimicrobial mechanisms surpass all the barriers and reach targeted sites, thereby making them potential candidate for antimicrobial applications. There is no doubt that nanotechnological strategies/interventions in healthcare sector will revolutionize the current treatment regime. The present review provides the understanding of variety of nanoparticles and their mechanisms for antimicrobial and antibiofilm efficacy, further their role to overcome antibiotic resistance is also highlighted in detail.