Antibacterial activity of nanoparticles and nanomaterials: a possible weapon in the fight against healthcare-associated infections.

Healthcare-associated infections are a serious threat in terms of morbidity and mortality for all patients receiving healthcare. The problem is aggravated by the increasingly widespread phenomenon of antibiotic resistance, with some microorganisms now resistant to all or almost all the currently available antibiotics. Nanomaterials are compounds used by many different industrial fields and they are currently studied for their intrinsic antimicrobial properties. To date, many researchers have considered using many different nanoparticles and nanomaterials to produce surfaces and medical devices with intrinsic antimicrobial features. Many compounds have shown very interesting and effective antimicrobial capacities and could be used, in the future, to manufacture new hospital surfaces and medical devices. However, many studies have to be carried out to evaluate the effective potential use of these compounds. The aim of this paper is to review the main literature regarding this topic, focusing on the main types of nanoparticles and nanomaterials studied for this purpose.