TABLE 1.
Summary of the use of gallium and gallium-compounds as antimicrobial agents.
| Optimization strategies | Gallium and gallium-based compounds | Antimicrobial effects | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| coordination compound | gallium citrate, gallium maltolate, gallium tartrate, tris(8-quinolinolato) gallium (III) (KP46), and gallium (III) complexes of a-N-heterocyclic thiosemicarbazones | improved solubility and not poor bactericidal effects on drug-resistant Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, including P. aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, M. tuberculosis, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus | Bonchi et al. (2014), Piatek et al. (2020), Lessa et al. (2012) |
| Ga2L3 (bpy)2, (L = 2,2′-bis(3-hydroxy-1,4naphthoquinone); bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine) | exert bactericidal effects on drug-resistant P. aeruginosa and S. aureus in an iron-containing environment | Wang et al. (2021b) | |
| GaMe2(L) and Ga (Me)2L | improved antibacterial activity than quinolinolate alone | Duffin et al. (2020) | |
| nanomaterial-based vehicles | Lipo-Ga-GEN | improved antibacterial activity than the corresponding drugs without liposomes | Halwani et al. (2008) |
| gallium-NAC | more gallium ions were deposited in P. aeruginosa cells in the gallium-NAC treatment group than in the traditional gallium citrate treatment group | Young et al. (2019) | |
| gallium-containing siderophores and heme analogues: desferoxamine-gallium, Ga-protoporphyrin IX, Ga-deuteroporphyrin, Ga-mesoporphyrin, Ga-hematoporphyrin, Ga-octaethylporphyrin, and Ga-porphine | not all siderophores combined with an antibacterial agent show increased antibacterial activity. Ga-protoporphyrin IX showed the best antibacterial effect | Kelson et al. (2013) | |
| ciprofloxacin-siderophore | decreased uptake of gallium and antibacterial potency compared to ciprofloxacin alone both in iron replete and deplete conditions | Sanderson et al. (2020) | |
| bioresponsive antibacterial nanomaterials based on gallium (III) and iron (III) cross-linked polysaccharide materials | improved bioavailability of gallium | Lin et al. (2021), Best et al. (2020) | |
| alloys and scaffold composites | Ga-doped titanium alloys | long-lasting release of Ga (III) and strong antibacterial effects on multidrug-resistant S. aureus for at least 3 days | Cochis et al. (2019) |
| Ga-doped magnesium alloys | effective in the treatment of osteomyelitis | Gao et al. (2019) | |
| eutectic gallium–indium alloys | time-increasing bactericidal effects against Gram-positive bacteria | Li et al. (2021b) | |
| bioglasses doped with gallium | sustained release of gallium ions and time-increasing bactericidal effects | Kurtuldu et al. (2021), Mehrabi et al. (2020), Wang et al. (2021a), Siqueira et al. (2019), Song et al. (2019), Lapa et al. (2019), Ciraldo et al. (2021), Keenan et al. (2017), Rahimnejad Yazdi et al. (2018) | |
| gallium-doped zinc borate bioactive glass | sustained and controlled release of gallium for at least 28 days | Rahimnejad Yazdi et al. (2018) | |
| phosphate glass, hydroxyapatite, PCL and hydrogel, collagen, poly (4-hydroxybutyrate), silk fibroin, Ca titanate | sustained release of gallium ions and play an excellent bactericidal effect against common pathogens, such as E. coli, S. aureus, and P. aeruginosa, both in vivo and in vitro | Lapa et al. (2020), Pajor et al. (2020), Rastin et al. (2021), Xu et al. (2019), Muller et al. (2021), Mehrabi et al. (2020), Rodriguez-Contreras et al. (2020) | |
| layered double hydroxide | gallium (Ga)–strontium (Sr) layered double hydroxides | sustained release of Ga ions and time-increasing bactericidal effects | Li et al. (2021a) |
| gallium (Ga)–zinc (Zn) layered double hydroxides | sustained release of Ga ions and time-increasing bactericidal effects | Donnadio et al. (2021) | |
| Synergistic strategies | ciprofloxacin, colistin, meropenem, and tobramycin | restored the bactericidal effect of traditional antibiotics and reversed the drug resistance of resistant bacteria | Rezzoagli et al. (2020) |
| tetracycline | improved antibacterial activity of gallium nitrate both in vitro and in vivo | Kang et al. (2021) | |
| poly (ethylene glycol)-desferrioxamine/gallium (PEG-DG) conjugates | Increase bacterial susceptibility to vancomycin | Qiao et al. (2021a) | |
| a xenosiderophore-conjugated cationic random copolymer | 0.31 of FICI for P. aeruginosa | Qiao et al. (2021b) | |
| a gallium-chitosan complex | improved antibacterial activity than that of single chitosan | Akhtar et al. (2020) | |
| ciprofloxacin-functionalized desferrichrome | improved antibacterial activity than that of ciprofloxacin alone | Pandey et al. (2019) | |
| metal ions | silver ions, zinc ions, Cd, Se, and Ga had good synergistic effects | Aziz (2019), Pormohammad and Turner (2020); Vaidya et al. (2019), Yoon et al. (2006) | |
| gallium-substituted hemoglobin combined with Ag nanoparticles | improved antibacterial activity | Morales-de-Echegaray et al. (2020) | |
| gallium-porphyrin, gallium-substituted hemoglobin, phthalocyanine, indocyanine green (ICG), hollow titanium dioxide nanotubes and gallium ions | improved antibacterial activity | Morales-de-Echegaray et al. (2020); Shisaka et al. (2019), Xie et al. (2021), Rahimnejad Yazdi et al. (2018) | |
| nitrates and gallium ions | induce antibacterial activity against P. aeruginosa under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions | Zemke et al. (2020) | |
| graphene foam and gallium ions | improved antibacterial activity | Slate et al. (2021) |