NiO Nanoparticles for Advanced Clinical Applications

The use of nanotechnology in medical applications is increasing day by day. Thanks to their unique physical, chemical, mechanical, electronic, and magnetic properties, nanoparticles are successfully used in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of many diseases. Today, metallic nanoparticles constitute one of the most important instruments of nanotechnological approaches. It has been proven by previous studies that metallic nanoparticles show extremely strong antibacterial, antiviral, and anticancer activity. It is known that the presence of microorganisms and cancer cells that are resistant to current conventional drug applications is one of the biggest obstacles in preventing the spread of diseases in large geographies and their development in the human body. For this reason, there is a great need to develop new-generation treatment applications. The fact that metallic nanoparticles are effective on drug-resistant microorganisms and show a much higher inhibitory activity than current treatment applications has increased the importance of these agents in the field of medicine. However, the biggest obstacle to the application of metallic nanoparticles on living things is the toxicity of these agents. Today, various methods are being developed to reduce the toxicity of metallic nanoparticles and to apply them to humans. The biological production of nanoparticles by green synthesis method instead of chemical synthesis is the most important of these advanced methods. Within the scope of this review, different production methods of nickel oxide (NiO) nanoparticles, the importance of which has been increasing in recent years, and the factors that change the efficiency of the produced nanoparticles in biological applications are discussed, and recent studies on antimicrobial applications of NiO nanoparticles have been brought together.