Abstract
Pathogenic oral biofilms are now recognized as a key virulence factor in many microorganisms that cause the heavy burden of oral infectious diseases. Recently, new investigations in the nanotechnology field have propelled the development of novel biomaterials and approaches to control bacterial biofilms, either independently or in combination with other substances such as drugs, bioactive molecules, and photosensitizers used in antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) to target different cells. Moreover, nanoparticles (NPs) showed some interesting capacity to reverse microbial dysbiosis, which is a major problem in oral biofilm formation. This review provides a perspective on oral bacterial biofilms targeted with NP-mediated treatment approaches. The first section aims to investigate the effect of NPs targeting oral bacterial biofilms. The second part of this review focuses on the application of NPs in aPDT and drug delivery systems.
Highlights
Biofilms have an important impact on humans in many ways as they can develop in natural, medical, and industrial environments [1]
Bacali and co-workers investigated the addition of graphene silver NP to PMMA acrylic resins in an attempt to improve denture antimicrobial characteristics and found that this combination restricted the growth of P. gingivalis and E. faecalis
The human oral cavity has been found to be an environment with bacterial diversity
Summary
Biofilms have an important impact on humans in many ways as they can develop in natural, medical, and industrial environments [1]. NPs have distinct advantages in that they exhibit special physical and chemical properties due to their ultra-small sizes and large surface area-to-mass ratio. This includes increased reactivity, greater solubility, biomimetic features and the ability to be functionalized with other substances such as drugs, bioactive molecules and photosensitizers. Antimicrobial NPs can effectively infiltrate the oral biofilms, leading to the effective delivery of therapeutics and may help manage the use of antibiotics [12]. The large surface area and high charge density of NPs enable them to interact with negatively charged bacterial cells, causing enhanced antimicrobial activity, cell membrane damage, generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), interference with cellular processes, proteins destruction, and, cell death induced by DNA damage [13]. We will elaborate on the role of NPs when applied in aPDT and drug delivery systems
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