Stimuli-responsive nanomaterials in infectious diseases

New and re-emerging infectious diseases caused by pathogenic organisms spread rapidly due to the emergence of resistance to existing antimicrobials. Rapid advances in nanotechnology presented sustainable developments in delivering antimicrobials with improved activity, stability, and bioavailability. Bioactive nanomaterials capable of responding to endogenous/external stimulus are being developed with enhanced specificity, reduced off-target effects and/or attenuating the resistance development to fight against infectious diseases including tuberculosis, HIV, bone infections, microbial biofilms and wound healing. Despite progress, precision and accuracy of single-stimulus responsive nanomaterials are still limited due to heterogeneity of diseases and complex microenvironments in organisms. Hence, current research focused on dual/multi-stimuli-responsive nanomaterials to increase targeting efficiency. This book chapter is presented to outline the up-to-date overview on the evolution of infection-targeted stimulus-responsive nanomaterials and their theranostic applications for concurrent diagnosis and antimicrobial therapy. In the end, challenges and future perspectives of this emerging field are also discussed.