Best served small: nano battles in the war against wound biofilm infections

The global challenge of antimicrobial resistance is of increasing concern, and alternatives to currently used antibiotics or methods to improve their stewardship are sought worldwide. Microbial biofilms, complex 3D communities of bacteria and/or fungi, are difficult to treat with antibiotics for several reasons. These include their protective coats of extracellular matrix proteins which are difficult for antibiotics to penetrate. Nanoparticles (NP) are one way to rise to this challenge; whilst they exist in many forms naturally there has been a profusion in synthesis of these small (<100 nm) particles for biomedical applications. Their small size allows them to penetrate the biofilm matrix, and as well as some NP being inherently antimicrobial, they also can be modified by doping with antimicrobial payloads or coated to increase their effectiveness. This mini-review examines the current role of NP in treating wound biofilms and the rise in multifunctionality of NP.