The Next Generation of Drug Delivery: Harnessing the Power of Bacteriophages

Abstract

The use of biomaterials, such as bacteriophages, as drug delivery vehicles (DDVs) has gained increasing interest in recent years due to their potential to address the limitations of conventional drug delivery systems. Bacteriophages offer several advantages as drug carriers, such as high specificity for targeting bacterial cells, low toxicity, and the ability to be engineered to express specific proteins or peptides for enhanced targeting and drug delivery. In addition, bacteriophages have been shown to reduce the development of antibiotic resistance, which is a major concern in the field of antimicrobial therapy. Many initiatives have been taken to take up various payloads selectively and precisely by surface functionalization of the outside or interior of self-assembling viral protein capsids. Bacteriophages have emerged as a promising platform for the targeted delivery of therapeutic agents, including drugs, genes, and imaging agents. They possess several properties that make them attractive as drug delivery vehicles, including their ability to specifically target bacterial cells, their structural diversity, their ease of genetic manipulation, and their biocompatibility. Despite the potential advantages of using bacteriophages as drug carriers, several challenges and limitations need to be addressed. One of the main challenges is the limited host range of bacteriophages, which restricts their use to specific bacterial strains. However, this can also be considered as an advantage, as it allows for precise and targeted drug delivery to the desired bacterial cells. The use of biomaterials, including bacteriophages, as drug delivery vehicles has shown promising potential to address the limitations of conventional drug delivery systems. Further research is needed to fully understand the potential of these biomaterials and address the challenges and limitations associated with their use.