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Review
. 2022 Jul 27;14(8):1563.
doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics14081563.

Nanotechnology in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Osteomyelitis

Demi Zapata  1 , Jordan Higgs  1 , Hunter Wittholt  1 , Kishore Chittimalli  2 , Amanda E Brooks  1 , Pranothi Mulinti  2
Affiliations
Review

Nanotechnology in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Osteomyelitis

Demi Zapata et al. Pharmaceutics. .

Abstract

Infection remains one of the largest threats to global health. Among those infections that are especially troublesome, osteomyelitis, or inflammation of the bone, typically due to infection, is a particularly difficult condition to diagnose and treat. This difficulty stems not only from the biological complexities of opportunistic infections designed to avoid the onslaught of both the host immune system as well as exogenous antibiotics, but also from changes in the host vasculature and the heterogeneity of infectious presentations. While several groups have attempted to classify and stage osteomyelitis, controversy remains, often delaying diagnosis and treatment. Despite a host of preclinical treatment advances being incubated in academic and company research and development labs worldwide, clinical treatment strategies remain relatively stagnant, including surgical debridement and lengthy courses of intravenous antibiotics, both of which may compromise the overall health of the bone and the patient. This manuscript reviews the current methods for diagnosing and treating osteomyelitis and then contemplates the role that nanotechnology might play in the advancement of osteomyelitis treatment.

Keywords: bone infection; nanobiopolymers; nanoparticles; nanotechnology; osteomyelitis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Osteomyelitis arises in one of three primary ways. Regardless of the underlying cause, vascular disruption due to the formation of sequestra can occur, making treatment very difficult (Lima et al.). Waldvogel’s classification of osteomyelitis [3] describes the characteristics of each of these ways. Figure created with BioRender.com.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Progression of either (A) acute or (B) chronic osteomyelitis (C) Cortical penetration and periosteal elevation (D) Formation of thick involucrum (E) Further expansion of methaphyseal focus and extensive involucrum. Two significant differences between acute and chronic osteomyelitis should be noted: the formation of a biofilm and the infiltration of the bacteria into host cells, both of which happen in chronic osteomyelitis. Modified from Desimpel et al. [2].
Figure 3
Figure 3
The Cierny and Mader classification reproduced [29].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Main uses of nanotechnology in medicine.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Summary of different types nanotechnology that can be used for disease diagnosis [45,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58].
Figure 6
Figure 6
Uses of various types of nanoparticles in the treatment of osteomyelitis. Created with BioRender.com.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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