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NANO-BIOMATERIALS FOR THERAPEUTIC APPLICATIONS: SYNTHESIS OF AN ENCPSULATED SULFANILAMIDE ANTIBIOTIC

Abstract

Infectious diseases, and drug resistance to common antibiotic drugs continue to represent a major threat to human health. In developing countries, millions of children die each year due to infections that are otherwise treatable. Sulfa drugs or sulfanilamides are inexpensive, yet effective antibacterial drugs that have been known for more than a century. Several types of sulfa drugs are marketed for treatment of common bacterial infections (skin, bladder, respiratory or urinary track etc) in addition to being effective against malaria. Sulfanilamides control the growth of bacteria (bacteriostatic) by inhibiting folic acid synthesis needed for bacterial growth. Sulfanilamide is structurally similar to p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) which is part of dihydrofolate. Bacterial growth is hindered by the progressive replacement of PABA by sulfanilamide during dihydrofolate biosynthesis in bacteria. Therefore, sulfanilamides are considered inhibitors of dihydropteroate synthetase. Several analogs of sulfanilamide have been synthesized, and this reaction is now described in textbooks. Metal complexes of sulfanilamides are water soluble but have also been linked to higher toxicity and increased resistance to sulfanilamides. Dendrimers are macromolecules which behave as monodispersed nanoreactors with ligand sites on both their surface and inside. Dendrimers host their guest-molecules with a molecular level of dispersion to the latter that increases the bioavailablility of the nanocomposites thus formed. PAMAM-based dendrimers are also nontoxic, and therefore unable to interfere with the results of the proposed study.

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