An Overview of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Produced by Plant Extracts for Anti-tuberculosis Treatments

Abstract

: Tuberculosis (TB), induced by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), is a fatal infectious disease that kills millions of lives worldwide. The emergence of drug-resistant and multidrug-resistant cases is regarded as one of the most challenging threats to TB control due to the low cure rate. Therefore, TB and drug-resistant TB epidemics urge us to explore more effective therapies. The increasing knowledge of nanotechnology has extended to some nanomedicines for disease treatment in the clinic, which also provides novel possibilities for nano-based medicines for TB treatment. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) have gained increasing attention for anti-bacterial uses based on their strong ability to induce reactive oxidative species (ROS) and release bactericidal Zinc ions (Zn2+), which are expected to act as novel strategies for TB and drug-resistant TB treatment. Some active herbal medicines from plant extracts have been widely reported to show attractive anti-bacterial activity for infectious treatment, including TB. Here, we summarize the synthesis of ZnO NPs using plant extracts (green synthesized ZnO NPs) and further discuss their potentials for anti-TB treatments. This is the first review article discussing the anti–TB activity of ZnO NPs produced using plant extracts, which might contribute to the further applications of green synthesized ZnO NPs for anti-TB and drug-resistant TB treatment.

Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Prime a Protective Immune Response in Galleria mellonella to Defend Against Candida albicans

“…In this work, ZnO-NP pretreatment saved larvae from C. albicans infection at a dose of 2 mg/kg without apparent toxicity, which is manifested by reducing the larval mortality and the fungal burden in hemolymph and tissue. The mechanisms driving antimicrobial activity of ZnO-NPs have been described in the literature, including generation of ROS, the release of zinc ions, and interaction of ZnO-NPs with the surfaces of microorganisms (Behzad et al, 2021;Efthimiou et al, 2021). Particularly, these mechanisms mainly focus on the directly antimicrobial properties of NPs.…”

Engineering zinc oxide hybrid selenium nanoparticles for synergetic anti-tuberculosis treatment by combining Mycobacterium tuberculosis killings and host cell immunological inhibition

“…Based on their attractive biological activities, ZnO NPs and Se NPs have both showed potential anti-TB application in recent years ( Heidary et al., 2019 ; Estevez et al., 2020 ; Pi et al., 2020 ; Behzad et al., 2022 ). Thus, the combination of ZnO NPs and Se NPs are expected to show synergistic anti-TB effects in theory.…”

“…Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs), with large surface area relative to their size and high catalytic activity, are widely reported in biomedical fields due to their potent anticancer and antimicrobial activities ( Jiang et al., 2018 ). Very interestingly, the ZnO NPs with low cytotoxicity are recently found to show strong inhibition effects on Mtb growth ( Heidary et al., 2019 ; Behzad et al., 2022 ), which therefore are expected to be engineered into anti-TB agents. However, the anti-TB efficiency of ZnO NPs remains to be further improved.…”

Advances in the fabrication of potential nanomaterials for diagnosis and effective treatment of tuberculosis

“…26,27 NPs have been extensively utilized as nanomedicines for disease-efficient treatment and exploited as novel alternatives for nano-based medicines for TB successive diagnosis. 20 The intelligent usage of NPs alongside antimicrobial substances has received significant research attention in this context. NPs possess a high surface area, entailing several active sites, which increase their affinity to interact with a broader spectrum of biological entities.…”

“…Therefore, most current reports suggest exploring more effective therapies and developing research motivation towards the search for surrogate treatment approaches. 20 The hepatotoxic effects of many drugs, such as rifampicin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol, which are all first-line anti-tubercular medications, should be considered. Elevations in liver functions were observed in several cases.…”