Advances in the delivery systems for oral antibiotics

Oral antibiotics have served as a primary strategy for bacterial infection. However, the increasingly prominent issues including antibiotics resistance and intestinal dysbiosis sounded the alarm to this traditional administration strategy. Herein, we summarize the state-of-the-art advances in the delivery of oral antibiotics. In this review, the emergency of bacterial infection and the effect of excessive antibiotics are discussed at first. Then, current attempts to prevent microflorae from resistance and dysbiosis are briefly enumerated, including oral co-administration systems (like protectors, adsorbents, activity enhancers, etc.) and nanoparticle-based delivery systems. Moreover, we also briefly introduce the development of mimetic antibiotics based on metal particles and highlight a novel micelle nanoparticle system, which possesses a positive charge and glucosylated surface to achieve targeted treatment. We strongly believe such an ingenious design could be applied in more scenarios for oral antibiotics delivery. Ultimately, we also put forward a concise summary and perspective of this field.