Antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activity of chitosan-alginate nanoparticles: a targeted therapy for cutaneous pathogens.

Advances in nanotechnology have demonstrated potential application of nanoparticles (NPs) for effective and targeted drug delivery. Here we investigated the antimicrobial and immunological properties and the feasibility of using NPs to deliver antimicrobial agents to treat a cutaneous pathogen. NPs synthesized with chitosan and alginate demonstrated a direct antimicrobial activity in vitro against Propionibacterium acnes, the bacterium linked to the pathogenesis of acne. By electron microscopy (EM) imaging, chitosan-alginate NPs were found to induce the disruption of the P. acnes cell membrane, providing a mechanism for the bactericidal effect. The chitosan-alginate NPs also exhibited anti-inflammatory properties as they inhibited P. acnes-induced inflammatory cytokine production in human monocytes and keratinocytes. Furthermore, benzoyl peroxide (BP), a commonly used antiacne drug, was effectively encapsulated in the chitosan-alginate NPs and demonstrated superior antimicrobial activity against P. acnes compared with BP alone while demonstrating less toxicity to eukaryotic cells. Together, these data suggest the potential utility of topical delivery of chitosan-alginate NP-encapsulated drug therapy for the treatment of dermatologic conditions with infectious and inflammatory components.

Nanotechnology and the diagnosis of dermatological infectious disease.

Despite advances in diagnostics and therapeutics, infectious diseases continue to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality, surpassing cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Accurate identification of causative pathogens is critical to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and to deliver appropriate and timely therapy. Various limitations ranging from cost to lengthy yield times of current diagnostic modalities highlight the need for new approaches. Nanotechnology represents an innovative direction offering many advantages for pathogen detection and identification. Through surface modifications, nanoparticles can be tailored to bind microbial surface markers, nucleic acids, and toxins. Combining these nanoparticles with both standard and developing detection technologies has led to the development of faster, more sensitive, and more economical diagnostic assays. This review will focus on the diagnostic advances that utilize fluorescent, metallic, and magnetic nanomaterials, highlighting their potential applications in the diagnosis of infectious dermatological conditions.

Nitrosoglutathione generating nitric oxide nanoparticles as an improved strategy for combating Pseudomonas aeruginosa-infected wounds.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a community-acquired, nosocomial pathogen that is an important cause of human morbidity and mortality; it is intrinsically resistant to several antibiotics and is capable of developing resistance to newly developed drugs via a variety of mechanisms. P aeruginosa's ubiquity and multidrug resistance (MDR) warrants the development of innovative methods that overcome its ability to develop resistance. We have previously described a nitric oxide-releasing nanoparticle (NO-np) platform that effectively kills gram-positive and gram-negative organisms in vitro and accelerates clinical recovery in vivo in murine wound and abscess infection models. We have also demonstrated that when glutathione (GSH) is added to NO-np, the nitroso intermediate S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) is formed, which has greater activity against P aeruginosa and other gram-negative organisms compared with NO-np alone. In the current study, we evaluate the potential of NO-np to generate GSNO both in vitro and in vivo in a murine excisional wound model infected with an MDR clinical isolate of P aeruginosa. Whereas NO-np alone inhibited P aeruginosa growth in vitro for up to 8 hours, NO-np+GSH completely inhibited P aeruginosa growth for 24 hours. Percent survival in the NO-np+GSH-treated isolates was significantly lower than in the NO-np (36.1% vs 8.3%; P=.004). In addition, NO-np+GSH accelerated wound closure in P aeruginosa-infected wounds, and NO-np+GSH-treated wounds had significantly lower bacterial burden when compared to NO-np-treated wounds (P<.001). We conclude that GSNO is easily generated from our NO-np platform and has the potential to be used as an antimicrobial agent against MDR organisms such as P aeruginosa.