Abstract

In the past decade, multi-drug resistance of pathogenic bacteria has become a serious problem to public health. Finding novel approaches to combat multi-drug resistant bacteria have therefore become increasingly important. One promising approach is antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) which involves the use of photo-sensitizer (nontoxic dyes) that are excited by visible light and produce oxygen free radicals in the presence of oxygen. Many studies report that curcumin inhibits the growth of both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Formulations of curcumin in liposome, nanoparticles, micelles and phospholipids complexes are being prospected to decline its hydrophobicity, increase solubility to amplify blood flow time, and its permeability through membrane barriers. Among these options nano-formulations of curcumin such as nano-crystals, nano-emulsions and polymeric nanoparticle encapsulated curcumin got enormous thrust and advance in the recent years in the category of natural or herbal drugs.. There are evidences that support the enhancement of antimicrobial activity and antibiofilm activities of curcumin silica nanoparticles of P.aeruginosa and S.aureus cultures using aPDT. This therapy exhibits significant antimicrobial activity against both bacteria. This review provides an updated information regarding the use of natural products to limit or prevent microbial resistance through use of photosensitizing agents like curcumin.

Key words: curcumin, photodynamic therapy, nanoparticles, antimicrobial, oxygen-free radicles