Antimicrobial Activity of Nanomaterials

The World Health Organization reports that millions of deaths occurring worldwide are because of infectious diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. The existing therapeutics is not adequate enough to fight against these diseases and their prolonged uses have led to the development of drug-resistant strains which are even more difficult to control. Hence, the need for an alternative approach is growing. Development of nanotechnology, especially nanostructured particles and formulations, is providing new opportunities to combat these infectious diseases more effectively. Nanomaterials have unique physicochemical properties like tuneable size, large surface to volume ratio, high reactivity, biocompatibility and functionalizable surface area. These properties are applied to facilitate the applications of antimicrobial drugs, thereby overcoming some of the limitations of traditional antimicrobial therapeutics. Moreover, the therapeutic effect and drug delivery approach of these nanomaterials have emerged as an innovative and promising alternative that enhance therapeutic effectiveness against pathogenic microorganisms and minimize undesirable side effects of the drugs. In order to enumerate the antimicrobial effect of these nanomaterials, this chapter is designed to discuss commonly used nanomaterials such as lipid vesicle dendrimers, polymeric and inorganic nanoparticles, carbon nanostructures, quantum dots, electrospun nanofibres, nanoclays, etc. against infectious diseases.