Self-Assembled Antimicrobial Nanomaterials

Abstract

Nanotechnology came to stay improving the quality of human life by reducing environmental contamination of earth and water with pathogens. This review discusses how self-assembled antimicrobial nanomaterials can contribute to maintain humans, their water and their environment inside safe boundaries to human life even though some of these nanomaterials display an overt toxicity. At the core of their strategic use, the self-assembled antimicrobial nanomaterials exhibit optimal and biomimetic organization leading to activity at low doses of their toxic components. Antimicrobial bilayer fragments, bilayer-covered or multilayered nanoparticles, functionalized inorganic or organic polymeric materials, coatings and hydrogels disclose their potential for environmental and public health applications in this review.

Microbicidal Dispersions and Coatings from Hybrid Nanoparticles of Poly (Methyl Methacrylate), Poly (Diallyl Dimethyl Ammonium) Chloride, Lipids, and Surfactants

“…In addition, colloidal NPs of biodegradable chitosan, lignin or dextran [5,6] or biocompatible poly (methacrylate)-and poly (acrylate)-based copolymers can be loaded with antibacterial agents [7]. The other class of hybrid nanomaterials encompasses the biomimetic antimicrobial NPs and coatings obtained from the assembly of polymers, surfactants, or lipids [8,9] or from the use of virus-like, bacteria-like, or biological structure-like nanomaterials carrying antimicrobials [10].…”

“…The very useful NPs can yield a variety of nanostructures. For example, NPs may form hybrid antimicrobial coatings and films [8,[14][15][16][17][18].…”

Biomimetic Nanomaterials from the Assembly of Polymers, Lipids, and Surfactants

“…Cationic lipid polymer NPs and coatings are strategic for applications in antimicrobial biomimetics and vaccine design [7,8,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][55][56][57][58][59]. Due to the cationic lipid, lipid polymer cationic NPs can combine effectively with antibiotics DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84618 like amphotericin B or miconazole [39,[68][69][70], rifampicin [71], clarithromycin [72], anti-inflammatory hydrophobic drugs like indomethacin [32], nucleic acids [21], oligonucleotides [35,73,74], proteins in general including serum proteins, transmembrane proteins, receptors and toxins [75][76][77][78], antigens [9,20,22,[34][35][36][37], peptides [23,[43][44][45] or polymers [79,80].…”

“…Life is ephemeral as are the assemblies that make life possible. Among the nanomaterials, the biomimetic nanomaterials mimic the assemblies found in living creatures and may find a myriad of useful applications [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. The bioactive biomimetic nanomaterials encompass a wide variety of hybrid metastable nanostructures keeping different or similar molecules transiently together thanks to weak but frequent intermolecular interactions as are the van der Waals, the hydrogen bridges, the electrostatic and electrodynamic interactions, and the hydrophobic effect [10,11].…”

“…Good instances are the direct action at the lymph nodes for stimulation of dendritic cells for vaccines [9,22,31,[34][35][36][37], and the penetration of nasal mucosae to overcome the blood brain barrier releasing drugs into the brain [33]. Other important applications relate to the antimicrobial properties of a variety of cationic assemblies either by themselves such as cationic bilayers or in effective combinations with other antimicrobials such as antibiotics, polymers or peptides [7,23,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. This review will discuss mostly seminal and recent contributions regarding applications of biomimetic nanoparticles and coatings in antimicrobial therapy and vaccine development.…”