Nanocarriers-Based Antimicrobial Drug Delivery

Dear Colleagues,

Combating microbial infections is challenging due to the rapid development of multi-drug resistance. Microbial diseases can be contagious or infectious, resulting in short or chronic and long-lasting illnesses. Intracellular pathogens causing brucellosis, salmonellosis, tuberculosis, etc., attack the first-line mammalian defense (macrophages and non-professional phagocytes) and continue to thrive intracellularly. On the other hand, pathogens causing pneumonia, osteomyelitis and scarlet fever avoid and escape the defense line using virulent mechanisms and thrive through extracellular reproduction. Nanocarriers—polymer/lipid-based, liposomes, micelles, metal-based, silica, fullerenes, dendrimers, zeolites, quantum dots, hydrogels and composites—have been explored for antipathogenic, microbicidal, or microbiostatic properties in various microbial infections, including those arising from biofilms. Nevertheless, nanocarriers for intracellular or extracellular infections need to be designed appropriately to target specific microbes, alleviate the resistance of the drug–pathogen interaction and toxicity and disrupt biofilms as well as increase the scope in theranostics and cosmeceuticals.

In this Special Issue, manuscripts, both original research and reviews, concerning nanocarrier-based approaches for antimicrobial drug delivery-related areas of interest in human and veterinary medicine and in the food and agriculture industry are welcome.

The topics will include, but are not limited to, the following.

Medicine/pharmaceutical/drug delivery:

• Nanocarriers (polymer/lipid-based, metallic and inorganic) for local treatment or selective targeting (active/passive) strategy of microbial infections.
• Functionalized nanocarriers or stimuli-responsive nanocarriers for microbial therapy.
• Combinatorial approach for the co-delivery of antimicrobial drugs.
• Overcoming drug resistance.
• Tackling biofilm-related infections.
• Nanoscale antimicrobial coating on biomedical and medical devices.
• Overcoming the solubility or stability issues and drug-induced side effects.
• Evaluation of antimicrobial nanocarriers in vitro (characterization), preclinical and clinical models (dermal/transdermal/pulmonary/oral/other sites)—antibacterial activity studies and cytotoxicity studies.
• Nano-antimicrobial in tropical infections—dengue, malaria, tuberculosis, zika, etc.

Food and Agriculture:

• Active packaging of antimicrobial nanocarriers for quality and safety and applications.
• Smart nano-antimicrobial food packaging.
• Nanopesticides and nanoherbicides.
• Environmental impact of nanocarriers used in food and agriculture.

Cosmetics/cosmeceuticals:

• Antimicrobial nanocarriers in cosmetics.
• Antimicrobial hair care/ skincare.

Theranostics:

• Detection of antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections using different approaches such as photo/sensitizers and multimodal imaging approaches, among others.

Dr. Anisha D'Souza
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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