Table 3 Selected relevant pre-clinical assays based on novel drug-loaded polymeric nanoparticles for the treatment of bacterial oral cavity infections

Streptococcus mutans

–

Chitosan

–

15–45% of NPs

Incubation

S. mutans ATCC 25,175

PNPs significantly decrease the cell viability of both microorganisms

Ikono et al. [77]

Porphyromonas gingivalis

–

PLGA

BAR

0.7 μM of NPs

V.o

BALB/cByJ mice

Treatment of infected mice with PNPs reduce bone loss and IL-17 expression almost to the levels of sham-infected mice and to a greater extent than treatment with an equimolar amount of free BAR

Mahmoud et al. [80]

Streptococcus mutans

Farnesol /

thonzonium bromide

p(DMAEMA)

–

0.125–64 μg/ml

Incubation

S. mutans UA159 serotype c

Farnesol PNPs reduce total biomass by disrupting insoluble glucan formation and increase NPs-cell membrane localization

Thonzonium bromide NPs reduce biofilm cell viability by ~ 6 log CFU

Sims et al. [78]

Staphylococcus aureus

Escherichia coli

–

PEG-PAE

Triclosan / Salivary proteins

200 µl of NPs

Incubation

S. aureus or E. coli biofilms

In vitro, in vivo and ex vivo results show that PEG-PAE-Triclosan yield better eradication efficacy towards a MDR S. aureus, E. coli and oral streptococcal biofilms than free Triclosan

Liu et al. [79]

I.v

BALB/c nude mice

Porphyromonas gingivalis

Lactobacillus lactis Streptoccocus mutans Streptoccocus gordonii

Streptoccocus sobrinus

Calcium zinc doxycycline

2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate and methacrylic acid

–

0.1–10 mg/mL

Incubation

P. gingivalis 33,277

S. mutans 700,610

S. sobrinus 33,478

S. gordonii 10,558

L. lactis 12,315

Dox-PNPs are the most effective antibacterial material, followed by Ca-PNPs, Zn-PNPs and finally the non-doped PNPs

P. gingivalis, S. mutans and L. lactis are the most susceptible bacteria, being S. gordonii and S. sobrinus the most resistant to the tested PNPs

Toledano-Osorio et al. [82]