Metallic nanoparticles as a strategy for the treatment of infectious diseases

ANGEL VILLEGAS NATALIA; SOLEDAD RAVETTI; BERMUDEZ JOSE; CID ALICIA; ALLEMANDI D,; PALMA S. D

Bioactive Materials for Antimicrobial, Anticancer and Gene Therapy

Elsevier

Lugar: NY; Año: 2019; p. 383 - 404

Recently, microbial infections have become a global health burden in which microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites) are gaining resistance to many antimicrobial agents (Kandi and Kandi, 2015). Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when these microorganisms are exposed to antimicrobial agents (such as antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, antimalarials, and anthelmintics) (WHO, 2017). As a result, the agents become ineffective and infections persist in the body, increasing the risk of spreading disease to others. p0035 In both human and veterinary medicine, the emergence of AMR is a growing global concern (O?Neill, 2016; WHO, 2017). The rapid emergence of resistant strains to conventional antimicrobial agents has complicated and prolonged the treatment of infections, causing higher health expenditure, mortality risks, and a lower life expectancy (Lakshminarayanan et al., 2018; Tanwar et al., 2014). p0040 Antibacterial agents used to treat infectious diseases can generally be classified as bactericidal, when they kill bacteria, or bacteriostatic, if they are able to slow bacterial growth. They can be obtained from plant or animal origin, or they may be natural compounds chemically modified (Hajipour et al., 2012; Simo ?es et al., 2017).