Jacalin-copper sulfide nanoparticles complex enhance the antibacterial activity against drug resistant bacteria via cell surface glycan recognition.

In any therapeutic modality the usage of drug in high doses often leads to serious side-effects. Herein, we demonstrated a method to enhance the antibacterial efficacy of CuS NPs at lower concentration through interacting with jackfruit seed lectin, jacalin. Fluorescence quenching studies revealed that jacalin form complex with CuS NPs and the association constant was 1.91 × 104 M-1. Upon complex with jacalin, the bacterial minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of CuS NPs drastically decreases from 12.5 µM to 0.78 µM. The addition of jacalin specific sugar, galactose to jacalin-CuS NPs complex (JCuS NPs) reverses the MIC from 0.78 µM to 25 µM. Mechanistic study suggests that JCuS NPs kills bacteria in part by reactive oxygen species and membrane damage, but galactose prevents the action of JCuS NPs at 0.78 µM. JCuS NPs successfully reduce (14 fold) A. hydrophila colonization in an infected zerbra fish and rescue them completely from the infection, but galJCuS NPs and CuS NPs were ineffective at 0.78 µM. Collectively, our studies demonstrates that the enhance antibacterial activity of JCuS NPs is likely due to the interaction between the galactose binding site of jacalin and the bacterial strains, as a result NPs are targeted and delivered sufficiently.

Future prospects of antibacterial metal nanoparticles as enzyme inhibitor.

Nanoparticles are being widely used as antibacterial agents with metal nanoparticles emerging as the most efficient antibacterial agents. There have been many studies which have reported the mechanism of antibacterial activity of nanoparticles on bacteria. In this review we aim to emphasize on all the possible mechanisms which are involved in the antibacterial activity of nanoparticles and also to understand their mode of action and role as bacterial enzyme inhibitor by comparing their antibacterial mechanism to that of antibiotics with enzyme inhibition as a major mechanism. With the emergence of widespread antibiotic resistance, nanoparticles offer a better alternative to our conventional arsenal of antibiotics. Once the biological safety of these nanoparticles is addressed, these nanoparticles can be of great medical importance in our fight against bacterial infections.

Sunlight mediated synthesis of silver nanoparticles using redox phytoprotein and their application in catalysis and colorimetric mercury sensing.

Owing to the benign nature, plant extracts mediated green synthesis of metal nanoparticles (NPs) is rapidly expanding. In this study, we demonstrated the successful green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by utilizing natural sunlight and redox protein complex composed of ferredoxin-NADP(+) reductase (FNR) and ferredoxin (FD). The capping and stabilization of the AgNPs by the redox protein was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Light and redox protein is the prerequisite factor for the formation of AgNPs. The obtained result shows that the photo generated free radicals by the redox protein is responsible for the reduction of Ag(+) to Ag(0). Transmission electron microscopy revealed the formation of spherical AgNPs with size ranging from 10 to 15 nm. As-prepared AgNPs exhibit excellent catalytic activity toward the degradation of hazardous organic dyes, such as methylene blue, methyl orange and methyl red. These bio-inspired AgNPs is highly sensitive and selective in sensing hazardous mercury ions in the water at micromolar concentration. In addition, FNR/FD extract stabilized AgNPs showed good antimicrobial activity against gram positive and gram negative bacteria.

Sulfidation of silver nanoparticle reduces its toxicity in zebrafish.

Chemical transformations of metal nanoparticles can be an important way to mitigate nanoparticle toxicity. Sulfidation of silver nanoparticle (AgNPs) is a natural process shown to occur in environment. Very few studies, employing microbes and embryonic stages of zebrafish, have shown reduction in AgNPs toxicity as a direct result of sulfidation. However the feasibility of reducing nanoparticle toxicity by sulfidation of AgNPs has never been studied in adult vertebrates. In this study, we have used adult zebrafish as a model to study the efficacy of sulfidation of AgNPs in reducing nanoparticle toxicity by employing a battery of biomarkers in liver and brain. While AgNPs enhanced liver oxidative stress, altered detoxification enzymes and affected brain acetylcholinesterase activity, sulfidation of AgNPs resulted in significant alleviation of changes in these parameters. Histopathological analyses of liver and sulphydryl levels also support the significance of sulfidated AgNPs in controlling the toxicity of AgNPs. Our study provides the first biochemical data on the importance of sulfidation of AgNPs in reducing biological toxicity in adult vertebrates.

Green synthesis of silver and gold nanoparticles employing levan, a biopolymer from Acetobacter xylinum NCIM 2526, as a reducing agent and capping agent.

With a vision of finding greener materials to synthesize nanoparticles, we report the production and isolation of levan, a polysaccharide with repeating units of fructose, from Acetobacter xylinum NCIM2526. The isolated levan were characterized using potassium ferricyanide reducing power assay, Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy and (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H NMR). To exploit levan in nanotechnology, we present a simple and greener method to synthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) using biopolymer, levan as both reducing and stabilizing agents. The morphology and stability of the AgNPs and AuNPs were examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV-vis absorption (UV-vis) spectroscopy. The possible capping mechanism of the nanoparticles was postulated using FTIR studies. As synthesized biogenic nanoparticles showed excellent catalytic activity as evidenced from sodium borohydride mediated reduction of 4-nitro phenol and methylene blue.