Research Progress on Antibacterial Application with Nucleic Acid and Nucleic Acid Materials

Typically, the abuse of antibiotics leads to the emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens. Abusing antibiotics reduces the killing effect of the antibiotics, which directly impacts the efficacy; as a result, the difficulty of treatment also increases. Developing alternative treatment strategies is urgently needed to reduce the mortality and incidence rate of drug-resistant bacterial infections. Over the past two decades, studies have shown that nanomedicine has the potential to be applied as an antibacterial agent. It has become a novel tool against resistant bacteria. Reportedly, metal and metal oxide nanoparticles (NPS) are the most common nanoparticles. Until recently, numerous scholars used DNA nanostructures alone or functionalized with specific DNA sequences to achieve antibacterial purposes to treat severe bacterial infections. It is a potential therapeutic method with significant potential to target and eliminate antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This paper reviews the dimensions, the underlining mechanism of multidrug bacterial resistance, and the current research progress of nanomaterials based on nucleic acid in the application of antibacterial treatment.