Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 15, Issue 16, 2015

The majority of chronic infections are associated with mono- or polymicrobial biofilms, having a significant impact on the patients’ quality of life and survival rates. Although the use of medical devices revolutionized health care services and significantly improved patient outcomes, it also led to complications associated with biofilms and to the emergence of multidrug resistant bacteria. Immunocompromised patients, institutiona Read More

The spectacular progress of research in the nanotechnology field led to the achievement of important knowledge of materials at the atomic and molecular scale and the extent of the use of nanoparticles in the design of medical products, ecological processes, cosmetics and other biotechnological applications. One of the current focuses of the medical applications of nanotechnology is the development of new strat Read More

The emergence of multi-resistant bacteria to drugs is recognized as a major cause of the increasing number of deaths in hospitals. Killing these bacteria require multiple expensive drugs that can have side effects. Metal nanoparticles may provide a new strategy to combat them. Due the antimicrobial and antiviral properties, nanoparticles (NPs) have outstanding biological properties that can be handled properly for desire Read More

In recent years, severe infections caused by the Gram positive pathogen Staphylococcus aureus have emerged both in community and clinical settings. The increased infection rates are explained by the versatility and resistance of this pathogen, which produces a wide arsenal of virulence factors, organize within difficult to eradicate biofilms and displays various resistance genes, leading current antibiotic therapies ineffectiv Read More

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) exhibit a consistent amount of flexible properties which endorse them for a larger spectrum of applications in biomedicine and related fields. Over the years, silver nanoparticles have been subjected to numerous in vitro and in vivo tests to provide information about their toxic behavior towards living tissues and organisms. Researchers showed that AgNPs have high antimicrobial effi Read More

Gold nanoparticles may be used in different domains, one of most important being the biomedical field. They have suitable properties for controlled drug delivery, cancer treatment, biomedical imaging, diagnosis and many others, due to their excellent compatibility with the human organism, low toxicity and tunable stability, small dimensions, and possibility to interact with a variety of substances. They also have optical properties, Read More

At present, the use of dental implants is a very common practice as tooth loss is a frequent problem and can occur as a result of disease or trauma. An implant is usually made of biocompatible materials that do not cause rejection reactions and allow the implant union with the respective bone. To achieve this goal, the implant surface may have different structures and coatings, generally used to increase the adherence of Read More

In this review the synthesis, functionalization and some applications of magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) were highlighted. It is our intention to highlight the correlations between the synthesis routes, related synthesis parameters, functionalization strategies and the properties expected for the materials containing MNPs. The uses of MNPs are strongly influenced by the properties of the materials. Therefore this review is tryi Read More