Stimuli-responsive nanocarriers for bacterial biofilm treatment.

Abstract

Bacterial biofilm infections have been threatening the human’s life and health globally for a long time because they typically cause chronic and persistent infections. Traditional antibiotic therapies can hardly eradicate biofilms in many cases, as biofilms always form a robust fortress for pathogens inside, inhibiting the penetration of drugs. To address the issues, many novel drug carriers emerged as promising strategies for biofilm treatment. Among them, stimuli-responsive nanocarriers have attracted much attentions for their intriguing physicochemical properties, such as tunable size, shape and surface chemistry, especially smart drug release characteristic. Based on the microenvironmental difference between biofilm infection sites and normal tissue, many stimuli, such as bacterial products accumulating in biofilms (enzymes, glutathione, etc.), lower pH and higher H2O2 levels, have been employed and proved in favor of “on-demand” drug release for biofilm elimination. Additionally, external stimuli including light, heat, microwave and magnetic fields are also able to control the drug releasing behavior artificially. In this review, we summarized recent advances in stimuli-responsive nanocarriers for combating biofilm infections, and mainly, focusing on the different stimuli that trigger the drug release.摘要细菌生物膜常造成长期, 顽固的感染, 因此长久以来都严重威胁着全球人类的生命健康。 由于生物膜会为内部病原体建造其保护性屏障, 阻碍药物的渗透, 因此传统的抗生素疗法通常难以根除生物膜。 为了解决这一问题, 研究人员构建了许多新型的药物载体, 以作为颇具前景的生物膜治疗策略。 其中, 刺激响应型纳米载体具有有趣的物理-化学性质, 例如尺寸, 形状和表面化学可调节的性质, 特别是智能药物释放性质, 因此吸引了人们的广泛关注。 根据生物膜感染位置和正常组织之间的微环境差异, 人们利用多种刺激物, 比如生物膜内积累的细菌产物 (酶, 谷胱甘肽等), 低pH和高H2O2水平, 来设计药物的“按需释放”以清除生物膜。 此外, 包括光, 热, 微波和磁场在内的外源刺激, 也可以用于人工控制药物的释放行为。 本篇综述中, 我们总结了刺激响应型纳米载体在对抗细菌生物膜中的最新进展, 并着重于引发药物释放的多种刺激物。Graphic abstract