Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering , Case School of Engineering, Case Western Reserve University , Cleveland , OH 44106 , United States.
Mol Pharm. 2018 Aug 6;15(8):2910-2921. doi: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.8b00342. Epub 2018 May 22.
The world is facing a growing crisis of microbial infections, where resistant strains are rapidly outpacing the development of new therapeutics. In an effort to combat this, the polymer community is developing new ways to improve upon drug delivery, synthesizing novel antimicrobial polymers, and using polymer technology to harness combination therapies. This review focuses primarily on the use of polymers to treat both bacterial and fungal infections in recent years. A bevy of work has illustrated that polymer technologies can have a huge impact in treating bacterial infections. However, harnessing polymers to deliver antifungals or as stand-alone therapeutics lags far behind that of interventions for bacterial infections. Fungal infections can be crippling to both human health and the agricultural community, making this area ripe for drug delivery technologies. This review describes recent work and highlights opportunities for bacterial and fungal treatment using soft matter.
世界正面临着微生物感染日益严重的危机，耐药菌株的出现速度远远超过了新疗法的研发速度。为了应对这一挑战，聚合物领域正在开发新的方法来改进药物输送，合成新型抗菌聚合物，并利用聚合物技术实施联合疗法。本综述主要关注近年来聚合物在治疗细菌和真菌感染方面的应用。大量研究表明，聚合物技术在治疗细菌感染方面具有巨大的影响。然而，利用聚合物输送抗真菌药物或作为单一疗法的研究远远落后于治疗细菌感染的研究。真菌感染对人类健康和农业社区都有严重影响，因此这一领域非常适合药物输送技术的发展。本综述描述了最近的工作，并强调了利用软物质进行细菌和真菌感染治疗的机会。
