INORGANIC NANOPARTICLES: AN ALTERNATIVE THERAPY TO COMBAT DRUG RESISTANT INFECTIONS

Monika Gupta

doi:10.22159/ijpps.2021v13i8.42643

Abstract

One of the most urgent challenges that medical sciences face today is overcoming the problem of drug resistance. This review paper encompasses research studies that provide a solution towards this major concern. It aims to highlight the therapeutic effects of various metal-based nanoparticles over conventional antibiotics. Severe infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites are transmitted easily and spread across millions of people round the globe. Resistance developed by these organisms and their various strains against regular antibiotics has posed great threat to save the lives of humans. Nanoparticles are tiny in nature and thus capable of generating Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). These ROS bursts to create severe oxidative stresses causing damage to DNA, lipids peroxidation and protein changes resulting in cell death. This mechanism is quite different from traditional antibiotics and hence gives better results towards microbial resistance. The study demonstrates the use of metal nanoparticles such as silver, zinc oxide, aluminium oxide, gold, copper oxide, titanium dioxide, magnesium oxide, iron oxide in combination with various antibiotics to efficiently kill infectious microbes.

Highlights

These infectious diseases spread through fungi, viruses, bacteria and parasites, which have become the cause of many deaths throughout the world [1]
This review focuses on the biological activity of metal-based nanoparticles that are affordable and non-toxic and provide potential therapeutics against various fungal, parasitic, viral and bacterial diseases
Infection diseases were classified as bacteria, fungi, viral and parasitic as well as their treatments is affected by drug resistance

Summary

INTRODUCTION

These infectious diseases spread through fungi, viruses, bacteria and parasites, which have become the cause of many deaths throughout the world [1]. Another study reported that silver nanoparticles interact with DNA, inhibit to bacterial DNA replication, resulting cell death [70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77]. Xue et al, reported that zinc oxide nanoparticles inhibit growth of fungal by the accumulation of nanoparticles on the outer membrane of the fungal cell causing cell death [154] It showed its antifungal activity against A. flavus and A. fumigates [155, 156]. When the gold nanoparticles get attached to the surface of cell membrane, it inhibits viral entry and prevents from infection. Metal-based nanoparticles have the ability to overcome drug resistance which makes it promising for the treatment of infectious diseases in the future of medical sciences

CONCLUSION

Methods