Chapter 10 - Antifungal nanomaterials: Synthesis, properties, and applications

Abstract

Nanomedicine is the application of nanotechnology in medicine in terms of the remedy, diagnosis, and control of human diseases. It has been extended to various disciplines of pathogenic microorganisms from unicellular bacteria to multicellular fungi and parasitic viruses. Synthesis and characterization of antifungal nanomaterials is now an attractive field in medicine and agriculture. Due to the continuous growth of life-threatening fungal diseases in immunocompromised patients in the last decade and emerging resistance to old and newly developed antifungal drugs, there has been a clear tendency to synthesize antifungal nanomaterials with more potency but lower toxicity for eukaryotic systems. Antifungal nanomaterials, including a wide array of inorganic nanoparticles and nanocarriers, have been developed to combat different types of mycoses from superficial to life-threatening systemic infections in humans and animals. This field has been extended even to plant pathogenic fungi which indirectly affect human health as they seriously affect plants as food supplies and oxygen delivery systems. Another attractive application of antifungal nanomaterials is to overcome the problems arising from water insolubility of known antifungal drugs as an obstacle in the treatment of fungal diseases. Nanoemulsions have been successfully developed for enhancing drug solubility and thermodynamic stability of some important antifungal drugs such as amphotericin B and itraconazole. In this chapter, we highlight recent advances in the field of antifungal nanomaterials from synthesis to applications in human health, environment, and food industries.