Efficiency of nanoparticles for treatment of ocular infections: Systematic literature review

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jddst.2020.101765
• Publication Date: 2020-04-22T16:00:26Z
• Authors: Shahrzad Ghafoori...; Adel Ghorani-Azam; Seyed Ahmad Mohajeri; Davood Farzin
• Keywords: Nanocarriers; Web of science

Abstract Eye infections are growing medical problems in recent years, and conjunctivitis and keratitis are the most important eye infections, which are generally treated with conventional drugs. However, the old drug delivery system has failed to combat the disease due to poor ocular bioavailability, low ocular residence time, high rate of antibiotic resistance and some allergic reactions. Therefore, finding efficient drug delivery system for ophthalmic drug delivery such as using lipid and polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) are currently the matter of interest. In this study, we systematically review all available literatures that investigated the application of NPs as delivery system or as anti-infective agent in ophthalmic infections. For this purpose, a systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, Medline, Ovid, Science Direct, and Google Scholar by using eye infections and NPs and all their equivalent terms as keyword. Since no clinical trials have been performed on this subject, all in vivo studies were included. Of the total of 442 documents, only 29 articles completely met the inclusion criteria and used for data synthesis. The results showed that using NPs and nanocarriers for this purpose can be a promising approach due to their high corneal penetration, bioavailability and ocular residence time that can lead to better compliance of patients. Based on the findings of the included studies, it is suggested that NPs and nanocarriers can be an effective and potential alternative for conventional drug delivery systems; however, further clinical trials are necessary to confirm such efficiency in clinical practice.