A brief overview on nano-sized materials used in the topical treatment of skin and soft tissue bacterial infections

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Skin and soft tissue infections are a significant clinical problem that can happen anywhere on the body. Bacteria are the most common cause of skin and soft tissue infections in humans. Despite the fact that there is a lot of antimicrobial agents and antibiotics for elucidating bacterial infections, the prevention and control of infectious diseases continue to be one of the greatest challenges for public health worldwide. At the present time, an alarming increase in multidrug resistance instantly requests to find suitable alternatives to current antibiotics. Therefore, drug resistance has been attempted to be resolved by the development of new classes of antimicrobial agents or targeted delivery systems for antibacterial drugs using nanotechnology.

Area covered: The present review summarizes the emerging topical efforts to support the use of nano-sized materials as a new opportunity to combat today’s skin infectious diseases.

Expert opinion: Nano-sized materials can overcome the stratum corneum barrier and deliver drugs specifically to bacterial skin infections with trivial side effects. Depending on the physicochemical characteristics of nano-scaled materials, they can specifically be selected to target bacterial pathogens and also to get into the skin layers. These systems can overcome the antibiotic-resistance mechanisms and help us to the design of novel topical formulations that will make administration of antibacterial compounds safer, easier and more convenient.

KEYWORDS:

• Antibiotics
• bacteria
• skin
• topical delivery
• drug resistance
• nanomaterial

Article highlights

• Overuse of antibiotics has caused antibiotic resistance among various strains of bacteria involved in skin infections.

• The safe transportation of antibacterial drugs from stratum corneum into the beneath skin layers is also a challenging issue.

• Nano-sized materials are established platforms for topical drug delivery due to treat specific skin bacterial infections.

• The physicochemical characteristics of nano-sized materials affect pharmacokinetic parameters and also permeability of antibacterial compounds.

• The applicability of nanomaterials in topical antibacterial formulations needs to be further addressed for scalability in industrial production.

This box summarizes key points contained in the article.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) (grant no. 97025563), and the Faculty of Pharmacy at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (grant no. 61925) for the financial support.