Metal nanoparticle based antibacterial nanocomposites for skin infections

Abstract

There are ample numbers of patients who have been suffering from skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) all over the world. Development of SSTIs associates with various symptoms such as inflammatory response, fever and formation of lesions. Conventional antibiotic therapy has been used as routine practice for this kind of medical situation. However, the present scenario becomes more challenging due to the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacterial infections. Moreover, the delayed wound healing due to certain medical conditions such as diabetes leads to an exaggeration of the complicacy of the skin infections. Therefore, healing bacterial skin infections with conventional antibiotics is not always found to be effective. Moreover, skin infections sometimes result in permanent scarring on infected areas after complete recovery also. This demands new therapeutics for skin infections as well as removal of the scar. In order to address these issues, for last few decades, nanotechnology-based approaches have been attempted by various research groups. These offer significant prospects of developing new therapeutic agents which exhibit heightened bactericidal activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial infection. Additionally, the nanoscale materials have been used as an integrated component of several skincare products like gels and creams which assist the removal of the scar and the protection of the skin from potentially toxic UV light and other harmful agents like pollutants too. There have been several nanoscale materials such as metal and metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs), nanospheres, nanocapsules and various other nanocomposites which show huge potential of using these to combat against skin infections due to antibiotic resistant bacteria also.