ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF CIPROFLOXACIN-COATED GOLD NANOPARTICLES ON SELECTED PATHOGENS

摘要

Bacterial antibiotic-resistance is an ongoing problem affecting man and modern health-care facilities. Modern techniques for drug and gene delivery operate on the highly beneficial principle of site-specific delivery which can be achieved using nanoparticles. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have been firmly established as an effective and reliable vehicle for drug and gene delivery in many studies. Research on the antibiotic properties of functionalized GNPs show that they enhance the anti-bacterial activity on certain species, such as Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The results on many other bacterial species are controversial and the nanoparticles do not function with the same level of success. Thus the aim of this study was to characterize ciprofloxacin-conjugated gold nanoparticles and investigate their probable site of activity against pathogenic bacteria. GNPs were prepared by reducing chloroauric acid (ImM) with sodium citrate. Ciprofloxacin-coated GNPs were synthesized by stirring the nanoparticle solution with 2.5 mM ciprofloxacin for 8 hours. Size, morphology and distribution of these conjugated GNPs were determined by viewing on a JEOL JEM-1010 tranmission electron microsope. Antimicrobial effects of the ciprofloxacin-conjugated GNPs on strains of Enterobacter spp., Pseudomonas spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus spp. and Klebsiella pneumoniae were determined by the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). The antimicrobial effect on the bacterial cell was observed with a JEOL JEM-2100 transmission electron microscope on 24 hour cultures of bacteria grown in the presence of ciprofloxacin-coated GNPs.