Development of FDA-Approved Antibacterial Metal and Metal Oxide Nanoparticles: An Update

Nanotechnology is an emerging discipline for biomedical application. Nanoparticles (NPs) research is one of the most studied and rapidly evolving field with its wide range of diagnostic and therapeutic applications, particularly in antimicrobial development. Following the improvement of the biomaterial’s functionality, the new area of ‘nanocomposites’ which often refers to the combination of NPs with other biomaterials such as hydrogel, polymers or other stabilizers, has swiftly followed. In the past decades, bacterial infections have caused negative impacts on human health, social and economic development in the globe. These problems are further aggravated by antibiotic resistance issues caused by drug-resistant microbes. With this, the development of antibacterial NPs has become an important field to alternate for the discovery of novel antibacterial agent. This review aims to discuss the key features of NPs, primarily derived from metal and metal oxide, for their antibacterial use in the clinic, the mechanisms of bacterial killing, and to cover some of the key challenges towards the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for clinical use.