Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health as current antibiotics are becoming useless against resistant infectious pathogens. Consequently, new antimicrobial strategies are urgently required. Drug delivery systems represent a potential solution to improve current antibiotic properties and reverse resistance mechanisms. Among different drug delivery systems, solid lipid nanoparticles represent a highly interesting option as they offer many advantages for nontoxic targeted drug delivery. Several publications have demonstrated the capacity of SLNs to significantly improve antibiotic characteristics increasing treatment efficiency. In this review article, antibiotic-loaded solid lipid nanoparticle-related works are analyzed to summarize all information associated with applying these new formulations to tackle the antibiotic resistance problem. The main antimicrobial resistance mechanisms and relevant solid lipid nanoparticle characteristics are presented to later discuss the potential of these nanoparticles to improve current antibiotic treatment characteristics and overcome antimicrobial resistance mechanisms. Moreover, solid lipid nanoparticles also offer new possibilities for other antimicrobial agents that cannot be administrated as free drugs. The advantages and disadvantages of these new formulations are also discussed in this review. Finally, given the progress of the studies carried out to date, future directions are discussed.
Highlights
It has been estimated that this situation would lead to a scenario where infections caused by MDR bacteria could cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050
Nanoscience and nanotechnology could be a realistic solution to the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) problem, as the development and study of drug delivery systems (DDSs) have provided new possibilities to improve the effectiveness of different therapeutic drugs for other complex diseases like cancer, autoimmune diseases or pathologies in the central nervous system [6,7,8]
Liquid lipids were added to the formulations, partially replacing the solid lipid component, and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) were obtained (Figure 3)
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. In the last years, pharmaceutical companies have reduced the investment and efforts to discover new antimicrobial drugs due to the financial risks that developing a new drug implies [5] This situation urges us to find new properties for existing antibiotics to alleviate the AMR problem as we search for other novel antimicrobial strategies. In this regard, nanoscience and nanotechnology could be a realistic solution to the AMR problem, as the development and study of drug delivery systems (DDSs) have provided new possibilities to improve the effectiveness of different therapeutic drugs for other complex diseases like cancer, autoimmune diseases or pathologies in the central nervous system [6,7,8]. For developing this review, PubMed and Web of Science databases have been analyzed, searching for papers related to antibiotic resistance in bacteria and SLNs without limiting the publication data of the papers
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