Advances in bio-hybrid nanostructures with anti-pathogenic activity

Bacterial and cancer cells that are resistant to current specific therapy have become an increasingly important public health problem over the past several decades. Consequently, the search for new anti-infection and anti-cancer treatments of drug resistant microbes has attracted a lot of attention. Recently, nanostructures have been shown to be efficient antimicrobial agents that do not induce drug-resistance. The present study reviews the advances in anti-pathogenic bio-hybrid nanostructures over the past decade. Three important issues are presented and discussed. First, the review focuses on the anti-pathogenic activity of the most common types of metallic / metal oxide nanoparticles. It not only reviews the progress of antimicrobial characteristics for various types of nanoparticles under different fabrication processes, but it also tabulates some specific findings over the past decade. Secondly, it reviews the use of polymeric, gold and iron-oxide nanoparticles as effective chemotheraputic drug carriers or for gene transduction in cancer treatment. Finally, some new advances made in Taiwan in anti-pathogenic research using nanotechnology were addressed in brief at the end of this paper. We highlighted the advances of the photo-controlled targeted drug-delivery system and the development of nanoparticles of traditional Chinese herbs, both of which representing important milestones in the last decade.