OBJECTIVES:The emergence of multi-drug resistance among various microbial pathogens has been a cause of serious concern to the medical world, limiting the choice of antibiotics. Considering that it may take decades to synthesize new antimicrobial drugs that combat resistant pathogens, the search for alternatives to conventional antimicrobial agents has begun.METHODS:In his paper we attempted to review the physico-chemical properties of nanoparticles, their modes of action and potential use in medicine and research with special reference to antimicrobial properties.RESULTS:Nanomolecules and nanoparticles have in recent years been extensively studied for their utility not only as antibiotics but also as vehicles to carry antibiotics or other agents such as cancer chemotherapeutics to target sites and limit damage to host cells.CONCLUSION:Nanomolecules were positively evaluated for their antimicrobial activities. Anti-biofilm activities of nanoparticles, utility of nanomaterials as carrier agents of drugs signifies their importance in medicine and research.

Fungi are a versatile group of microorganisms which can be freely present in the environment, be a part of the normal flora of human and animals and have the ability to cause mild superficial infections to severe life threatening invasive infections. Invasive fungal infections (IFI's) are those infections where fungi have invaded in to the deep tissues and have established themselves resulting in prolonged illness. IFI's usually are seen in debilitated and immunosuppressed individuals. There are many reports of IFI's even in immunocompetent individuals thus making IFI's a potential threat in the present century. Fungi are saprophytic microorganisms which have evolved mechanisms to survive in the mammalian hosts. Most of the fungal infections have been accidental and systemic fungal infections are a rarity that may result in high mortality. In systemic fungal infections the outcome of the disease depends more on the host factors rather than the fungal virulence. Immune response to fungal infections is a complex subject where in fungi invading goes unrecognised by the immune system and that invasive fungal infections can result in severe inflammatory reactions resulting in morbidity and mortality. From being uncommon during the earlier part of the 20 th century when the world was plagued with bacterial epidemics, fungi have evolved as a major global health problem.

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Preeclampsia is an idiopathic multisystem disorder specific to pregnancy and development of hypertension and proteinuria, increased vascular resistance and endothelial dysfunction in the mother , altered placental perfusion and restricted fetal growth. The vasospasm leads to destruction of RBCs release iron thus, there is elevated serum iron levels in preeclamptic women. The excess iron released from destruction of RBCs can react with free radicals produced from cell membrane (as it is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids) and circulating lipoproteins initiates lipid peroxidation both in placenta and vasculature. This is one of the significant etiologic factors in the endothelial cell damage of preeclampsia. the raised serum iron levels in turn alters the iron related parameters like total iron binding capacity(TIBC), serum ferritin, transferrin, percent saturation.

Sepsis is a potential clinical condition which is a consequence of infectious disease or a severe inflammatory reaction secondary to infection or injury. Sepsis in Greek means putrefaction or decay, correlating well with the multiple organ failure and severe shock resulting in death of the patient suffering from severe sepsis. Clinical management of sepsis requires prompt laboratory diagnosis and formulation of effective patient management strategies that may include antimicrobial chemotherapy in case of sepsis induced by infectious microbe. Although many laboratory biomarkers are available for the diagnosis of sepsis, only few markers have proven to be beneficial in differentiating infectious disease sepsis and sepsis of non-infectious origin. Of the available markers only few have prognostic value. We in this review discuss the utility of a novel and emerging sepsis marker, the presepsin which has a better diagnostic and prognostic value, and has been effective in predicting the survival of the sepsis patients.