Remediation of Onychomycosis Using Bionanotechnology.

Onychomycosis is a common chronic fungal infection of the nails that causes discoloration and/or thickening of the nail plate. There are challenging to treat and is associated with high recurrence rate and require lengthy duration of treatment, which poses a risk of adverse effects and drug interactions. The present study aims to; explore the use of medicinal plants extract and /or green synthesized nanoparticles against fungal infection, as alternative treatments of commercial drugs can be considered safe. Its antifungal activity was assessed in vitro by agar diffusion method against isolated fungi that causing onychomycosis infection. The results showed that garlic and black pepper extracts possess good antifungal activity and chitosan has low antifungal activity. While garlic-ZnONPs, Black pepper-ZnONPs and nano chitosan showed comparably strong antifungal activity toward isolated fungi that causing onychomycosis infection. The antifungal effect varied according to fungal species. The maximum activity was noted for that garlic-ZnONPs against Candida albicans (35 mm) and T. rubrum (35 mm). Nano Zn-black pepper showed good antifungal potential against Candida albicans (32 mm), Rhodotorula muciliginosa (32 mm) and A.niger (30 mm). Nano chitosan showed high effect on Candida albicans (33 ml and T.rubrum (35 mm). Cells structural damage that showed on TEM cause fungal cells damage. The bioinformatics analysis confirmed the obtained results. In conclusion, nanoparticles improve drug targeting and enhances the drug profile and permeation. Future respective are required for detailed mechanism of action with more advanced investigations about the antifungal activity are important.