Nanoparticles for New Pharmaceuticals: Metabolites from Actinobacteria

DAVILA COSTA JOSE; ROMERO CINTIA; RASUK CECILIA; ALVAREZ ANALÍA

Environmental Nanotechnology Volume 4 (Environmental Chemistry for a Sustainable World

Springer

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2019; p. 195 - 214

It is widely known that the most promising source of new drugs remain natural products, mainly those of microbial origin. Such is the case of microbial nanoparticles (NPs) which have unusual physical, chemical, and biological properties like as powerful antibacterial activities. While NPs synthesized by chemical methods involve hazardous and expensive processes, nano-biosynthesis is a green technology by which NPs are obtained through biological processes such as the reduction of a metal salt by the action of biomolecules. Actinobacteria seem to be excellent producers of metal NPs, although this process remains unexplored in this phylum. Meanwhile, it is known that Streptomyces and Amycolatopsis are genera with a great potential to produce specialized biomolecules with clinical applications. Nonetheless, they have in their genomes many more biosynthetic pathways which constitute an untapped promising source of new antibacterial molecules and other therapeutic agents. The present book chapter compiles and updates the available information about the synthesis of NPs by actinobacteria and discusses about the potential of metal-resistant strains to produce new NPs and specialized metabolites that could be used as novel and effective antimicrobials.