Antimicrobial Nanofibers to Fight Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria

Multidrug-resistant bacteria are among the most challenges in healthcare systems. According to the World Health Organization, these bacteria that belong to the critical and high-priority bacteria groups are resistant to carbapenem or multiple antibiotics, respectively. They are commonly associated with bone, skin, and soft tissue infections, and current treatment strategies involve the use of oral and intravenous multiple antibiotics. Consequently, infected injured sites benefit from combined antimicrobial and regenerative action during the tissues’ repair. The high demand for effective solutions led to the development of biocompatible and antibacterial polymeric membranes for local therapy. These highly porous membranes are composed by nanofibers’ network providing a matrix for cellular proliferation and local release of antimicrobial agents. Nowadays, there are several techniques to produce nanofibers like template synthesis, self-assembly, freeze-drying, melt-blowing, electrospinning, among others. Electrospinning emerges in the production of nanofibers with intrinsic characteristics. The high surface area-to-volume ratio and the nanometric diameters allow mimicking innate tissues increasing biomedical fields’ attention. Therefore, electrospun nanofibers become favoured as drug delivery systems, improving drugs’ dissolution rates while maximizing their action. Additionally, they permits the loading several drugs in higher concentrations and control their release rate without associated toxicity. Hence, antibiotics drugs have been the most common encapsulated medicinal compounds using numerous polymers combinations as carriers. Therefore, the versatility of electrospinning led to advanced approaches which combine complex strategies to locally provide multiple antimicrobial agents through the same platform and consider different release profiles. Overall, further developments should continue to complex delivery systems to meet clinical requirements.