A mechanistic perspective on targeting bacterial drug resistance with nanoparticles

Abstract

Bacterial infections are an important cause of mortality worldwide owing to the prevalence of drug resistant bacteria. Bacteria develop resistance against antimicrobial drugs by several mechanisms such as enzyme inactivation, reduced cell permeability, modifying target site or enzyme, enhanced efflux because of high expression of efflux pumps, biofilm formation or drug-resistance gene expression. New and alternative ways such as nanoparticle (NP) applications are being established to overcome the growing multidrug-resistance in bacteria. NPs have unique antimicrobial characteristics that make them appropriate for medical application to overcome antibiotic resistance. The proposed antibacterial mechanisms of NPs are cell membrane damage, changing cell wall penetration, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, effect on DNA and proteins, and impact on biofilm formation. The present review mainly focuses on discussing various mechanisms of bacterial drug resistance and the applications of NPs as alternative antibacterial systems. Combination therapy of NPs and antibiotics as a novel approach in medicine towards antimicrobial resistance is also discussed.

Keywords:

• Antibacterial nanoparticles
• drug delivery
• multidrug resistance bacteria
• ROS
• biofilm

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge all the people who helped us do this project. All figures were created in BioRender.com. The final version was checked for English by A/Prof Samantha J. Richardson, School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

Author contributions

KK (Khatereh Khorsandi) conceived the original idea and designed the article. KK, SKG (Saeedeh Keyvani-Ghamsari) and FKS (Fedora khatibi Shahidi) interpreted the relevant literature and wrote the manuscript. KK, RH (Reza Hosseinzadeh) and SK (Simab Kanwal) revised and corrected the final version of manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.