Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 24, Issue 8, 2018

Hydrogels, as a class of materials for tissue engineering and drug delivery, have high water content and solid-like mechanical properties. Currently, hydrogels with an antibacterial function are a research hotspot in biomedical field. Many advanced antibacterial hydrogels have been developed, each possessing unique qualities, namely high water swellability, high oxygen permeability, improved biocompatibility, ease of loading a Read More

The rising incidence of antibiotic-resistant infections, combined with a declining number of new antibiotic drug approvals, has generated an alarming therapeutic gap that critically undermines public health. Host Defense Peptides (HDPs), sometimes referred to as “Nature's Antibiotics”, are short chain, amphiphilic and cationic peptide sequences found in all multicellular organisms as part of their innate immunity. While t Read More

The risk of bacterial colonization of abiotic surfaces of biomedical devices poses important challenges for the pharmaceutical and biomaterials science fields. In this scenario, antibacterial coatings have been developed, using a number of different molecules and materials. Among them, chitosan is a non-cytotoxic, biocompatible biopolymer with an inherent antimicrobial activity that has been already used in a wide variet Read More

Infections caused by microbial proliferation are one of the common issues and serious threats to the medical care, and they usually result in disease spread. Therefore, it is a significant issue for developing the antiinfective biomaterials to control this problem, according to the specific clinical application. Meanwhile, all their properties, the best anti-infective performance, the safe biocompatibility and the appropriate tis Read More

Metal oxide nanoparticles (MO-NPs) are known to effectively inhibit the growth of a wide range of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. They have emerged as promising candidates to challenge the rising global issue of antimicrobial resistance. However, a comprehensive understanding of their mechanism of action and identifying the most promising NP materials for future clinical translation remain a major challenge due t Read More

The antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a group of unique naturally occurring anti-microbial compounds with around 50 amino acids. It represents promising therapeutic agents to the infectious disease without concerning about drug resistance. However, commercial development of these peptides for even the simplest application has been hindered by the limitations of sources, instability, toxicity and bioavailability. To impr Read More

Traditional use of antibiotics through injection or oral ingestion has many disadvantages, such as detrimental side effects in the host, less effectiveness, high and repeated doses, and development of drug resistance. For prevention and treatment of implant-associated infections, the continuous local delivery of antibiotics is required. Thus, there is a strong demand for the development of drug carrier systems to contro Read More

Construction of antibacterial surfaces or films is of great interest in various fields including biomedicine, food, agriculture and so on. So far, a number of antibacterial agents have been used to construct antibacterial surfaces. Layer-by-Layer (LbL) assembly is a simple and versatile deposition process for fabricating multilayer thin films with great advantages to control the architecture and composition of the films. In Read More

Wound management is an important and increasing global issue. Infection of a wound can cause a delay in wound healing and pain, but also more serious complications like tissue necrosis or even sepsis, which can lead to loss of tissue, limbs or life. Antibacterial agents have been introduced into wound infection care. In this review, we provide an insight into the current antibacterial strategies of wound dressings, including wo Read More

The bacterial luciferase gene cassette (lux) is an ideal bioreporter for real-time monitoring of the dynamics of bacteria because it is a fully autonomous, substrate-free bioluminescent reporter system available in a prokaryotic or eukaryotic host background. The lux operon is emerging as a powerful bioreporter for the study of a wide range of biological processes such as gene function, drug discovery and development, Read More