Antimycobacterial Effect of Selenium Nanoparticles on Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the leading cause of death from a single infection agent worldwide. In recent years, the occurrence of TB cases caused by drug-resistant strains has spread, and is expected to continue to grow. Therefore, the development of new alternative treatments to the use of antibiotics is highly important. In that sense, nanotechnology can play a very relevant role, due to the unique characteristics of nanoparticles. In fact, different types of nanoparticles have already been evaluated both as potential bactericides and as efficient drug delivery vehicles. In this work, the use of selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) has been evaluated to inhibit the growth of two types of mycobacteria: Mycobacterium smegmatis (Msm) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). The results showed that SeNPs are able to inhibit the growth of both types of mycobacteria by damaging their cell envelope integrity. These results open a new opportunity for the use of this type of nanoparticles as antimycobacterial agents by themselves, or for the development of novel nanosystems that combine the action of these nanoparticles with other drugs.

Nanoparticles as therapeutic options for treating multidrug-resistant bacteria: research progress, challenges, and prospects

“…A study by Sarwar et al (2017) showed that ZnONps form a complex with cholera toxin, compromises its structure, and stops its interaction with receptors present in the erythrocytes. Also, M. tuberculosis showed in vitro susceptibility to AgNps (Tabaran et al 2020), TiO 2 (Ramalingam et al 2019), and SeNps (Estevez et al 2020), although their mechanism of action remains unclear. AgNps loaded into Ti nanotubes showed promise against biofilm cells formed by MRSA.…”

The Advancing of Selenium Nanoparticles Against Infectious Diseases

“…In recent decades, the occurrence of drug-resistant TB cases become an emerging issue, which requires the development of new alternative treatments beyond the current antibiotics or novel techniques to enhance the efficiency of current antibiotics. Estevez et al found that Se NPs were able to inhibit the growth of Mtb by damaging their cell envelope integrity, which indicated a new opportunity for the use of Se NPs as antimycobacterial agents by themselves, or for the development of novel nanosystems that combine the action of these Se nanoparticles with other drugs (Estevez et al, 2020).…”

Inorganic and Polymeric Nanoparticles for Human Viral and Bacterial Infections Prevention and Treatment

“…The current increasing existence of multi-drug resistant and extensively drug-resistant strains makes the treatment of this disease an important problem in the present and, potentially, future years [ 113 ]. Some current NPs-based approaches have been concerned about this infection and have demonstrated that M. tuberculosis show in vitro susceptibility to Ag [ 114 ], selenium (Se) [ 115 ], and TiO 2 [ 116 ] NPs, but their intracellularly anti-tuberculosis activity remains unclear. Up to date, only a work asserts that PLGA NPs loaded with a highly hydrophobic citral-derived isoniazid analogue promote antibiotic targeting into replicating extra- and intracellular M. tuberculosis bacilli [ 117 ].…”