An overview of nanofiber-based antibacterial drug design

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Conventional administration of antibacterial drugs to the human body can cause vital problems such as dose dependent systemic toxicity and bacterial resistance which prevent the healing process. In this regard, recent studies have been devoted to producing nanofiber based antibacterial drug delivery approaches which surpass bacterial resistance and toxicological issues.

Areas covered: This review summarizes latest developments in the production of antibacterial nanofibers, nanofiber based antibacterial action mechanisms and release profiles of nanofibers. In the first section, key challenges of antibacterial nanofibers and release and non-release antibacterial action mechanisms of nanofibers are highlighted. In the second section, routes of antibacterial nanofiber design have been given. Factors affecting drug release mechanisms have been discussed elaborately in the final section. Literature was surveyed from research articles, standard sources (WOS and Scopus) and clinical trials.

Expert opinion: New generation nanofibers provide high drug loading capacity and efficiency with their high surface area and tunable pore size. They also enable sustained and controlled release of antibacterial drugs with basic (direct incorporation, physically adsorption or chemically surface modification of antibacterial drugs), advanced (core–shell structure, nanoparticle decorated and multidrug loaded) and smart (stimuli responsive) antibacterial nanofiber design strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Antibacterial
• nanofibers
• antibacterial drug delivery
• advanced antibacterial delivery systems

Article highlights

• Nanofibers have been widely used for a various range of drug delivery systems and their use in antibacterial drug delivery field has increased in recent years.

• Comparing with other nanotechnological antibacterial drug delivery systems, new generation nanofibers provide high loading capacity, high encapsulation efficiency of antibacterial agents and minimum systemic toxicity.

• Antibacterial drugs can be easily incorporated into nanofibers and antibacterial nanofibers are divided into two different concepts that are called release and non-release systems.

• Antibacterial drug release profiles can be tuned by various production strategies such as basic, advanced and smart strategies.

• By modifying antibacterial nanofiber design, efficient antibacterial drug release profiles and simultaneous delivery of multiple drugs are possible.

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

Additional information

Funding

The authors were financially supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) via their 2215- scholarship program support for Ph.D. students to R Shahbazi during his Ph.D. at Hacettepe University.