Bio-assisted synthesis of bimetallic nanoparticles featuring antibacterial and photothermal properties for the removal of biofilms

Abstract

Biofilms are responsible for about considerable amounts of cases of bacterial infections in humans. They are considered a major threat to transplant and chronic wounds patients due to their highly resistant nature against antibacterial materials and due to the limited types of techniques that can be applied to remove them. Here we demonstrate a successful in-situ bio-assisted synthesis of dual functionality nanoparticles composed of Silver and Gold. This is done using a jellyfish-based scaffold, an antibacterial material as the templating host in the synthesis. We further explore the scaffold’s antibacterial and photothermal properties against various gram-negative and positive model bacteria with and without photo-induced heating at the Near-IR regime. We show that when the scaffold is loaded with these bimetallic nanoparticles, it exhibits dual functionality: Its photothermal capabilities help to disrupt and remove bacterial colonies and mature biofilms, and its antibacterial properties prevent the regrowth of new biofilms. Graphical Abstract

Mucin‐Based Composites for Efficient Mercuric Biosorption

“…[30] Mucin was also shown to have reductive capabilities, enabling it to synthesize nanoparticles within its structure. [31][32][33][34][35] In living forms, mucins use their intermolecular interactions to assemble a semi-permeable viscous mesh, called mucus [29] whose primary role is to protect various organs or cells from the outside environment and block harmful particle molecules and pathogens. [36,37] Due to its selective binding to cations, [38] the intestinal mucus barrier has been suggested to act as a "coarse filter" in regulating metal uptake, allowing passage of essential metals (e.g., Na, Ca, Zn) to the bloodstream while obstructing other metals (e.g., Cr, Fe, Al, Pb) and excreting them back into the lumen.…”

Charge and hydrophobicity of amyloidogenic protein/peptide templates regulate the growth and morphology of gold nanoparticles

“…The study establishes the foundation of designing principles of amyloid templated nano-biomaterials such as AuTNPs and AuSSs for future applications such as mineral delivery 28 inorganic catalysis 29,70 and other biotechnological applications. 71,72 The successful isolation of intact nanostructures from the amyloid templates suggests the possible future application of these protein-templated nanoparticles with the required shapes and sizes.…”

Squalene-Rich Amaranth Oil Pickering Emulsions Stabilized by Native α-Lactalbumin Nanoparticles

“…The morphometric characteristics of the nanoparticles were analyzed with a Quanta 200 FEG (FEI Company, Hillsboro, OR, USA) Dual Beam environmental scanning electron microscope using acceleration voltages of 10 and 20 kV for magnifications of 25,000 and 50,000 x respectively. The water suspension of the nanoparticles was diluted at 1:100 at 25 °C before observation [ 29 ].…”