Effect of biosynthesized selenium nanoparticles using Nepeta extract against multidrug‐resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii

Abstract

The problems of drug resistance in bacteria have become one of the daily challenges of the clinical treatment of patients, which inevitably forces us to use agents other than common antibiotics. Among these, we can take help from different properties and applications of nanoparticles (NPs). In this work, we evaluate the antibacterial activity of biosynthesized selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) against standard strains of multidrug‐resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii. The production of biosynthesized SeNPs was proved by ultraviolet‐visible, Fourier transform infrared, X‐ray diffractometer, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy, Dynamic light scattering, and Zeta potential methods. The cytotoxicity effect of SeNPs was investigated by MTT assay. Disk diffusion agar (DDA) and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) tests were performed on the mentioned bacteria using different classes of standard antibiotics and SeNPs separately. The impact of SeNPs combined with the desired antibiotics for better treatment of these infections was evaluated by checkerboard assay to determine the synergism effect. After the confirmation results based on the biosynthesis of SeNPs, both standard bacterial strains were susceptible to SeNPs and had a zone of inhibition using the DDA test. Also, the results of MICs showed that biosynthesized SeNPs in lower concentrations than antibiotics cause no growth of bacteria. On the other hand, according to the checkerboard assay, SeNPs had a synergistic effect with conventional antibiotics. The antibacterial sensitivity tests demonstrated the inhibition of bacterial growth in the presence of lower concentrations of SeNPs than common antibiotics. This property can be exerted in future applications to solve the drug resistance obstacle of microorganisms in bacterial diseases.

Carbapenem-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii: Biofilm-Associated Genes, Biofilm-Eradication Potential of Disinfectants, and Biofilm-Inhibitory Effects of Selenium Nanoparticles

“…In the current study, SeNPs showed antibacterial activity against all tested CRABs, with MICs lower than 0.07 mg/mL for two thirds of the isolates. Accordingly, previously published articles strongly suggested the wide-spectrum antibacterial activity of SeNPs against a variety of microbes, including Gram-negative bacteria, such as E. coli , P. aeruginosa , and A. baumannii [ 54 , 55 , 56 ]. However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study evaluating the antibiofilm efficacy of SeNPs against CRABs with confirmed biofilm-producing capacity.…”

A Review of the Antibacterial, Fungicidal and Antiviral Properties of Selenium Nanoparticles

“…The use of plant extracts (Urtica dioica, Ricinus communis, Artemisia annua, Nepeta sp., etc.) during synthesis also enhances the antibacterial and antifungal effects of SeNPs [117,148,150,175]. The addition of SeNPs to titanium oxide nanotubes enhances the antibacterial properties of the latter [176][177][178].…”

“…This approach is also based on the reduction of selenium-containing precursors to Se 0 . The essential difference between the first and the second type is that biogenic synthesis uses cellular structures [115,131,[146][147][148][149] and bioorganic synthesis uses noncellular extracts of plant and microbial origin to synthesize nanoparticles [117,132,[150][151][152][153]. In this case, reducing agents are usually secondary metabolites, such as flavonoids, thiamine and capsaicin, as well as other agents containing amino groups, extracted from various plants: Spirulina platensis, Azadirachta indica, Trigonella foenum-graecum, Allium sativum, etc.…”

“…SeNPs have been described as having their own antimicrobial properties [112][113][114]. In addition, modified SeNPs with antimicrobial properties can be obtained by biosynthesis, which significantly reduces the cost of their production [115][116][117].…”

“…Se nanospheres are described in a significant portion of the studies [117,[121][122][123]168]. However, other forms of SeNPs are described in a number of works: nanowires, nanorods and nanotubes.…”