Evaluating bionanoparticle infused fungal metabolites as a novel antimicrobial agent

Abstract

Therapeutic properties of fungal metabolites and silver nanoparticles have been well documented. While fungal metabolites have been used for centuries as medicinal drugs, potential of biogenic silver nanoparticles has recently received attention. We have evaluated the antimicrobial potential of Aspergillus terreus crude extract, silver nanoparticles and an amalgamation of both against four pathogenic bacterial strains. Antimicrobial activity of the following was evaluated – A. terreus extract, biogenic silver nanoparticles, and a mixture containing extract and nanoparticles. Four pathogenic bacteria - Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus cereus were used as test organisms. Phenol, flavonoid, and alkaloid content of extract were determined to understand the chemical profile of the fungus. The extract contained significantly high amounts of phenols, flavonoids, and alkaloids. The extract and biogenic silver nanoparticle exhibited significant antibacterial activity at concentrations of 10 μg/ml and 1 μg/ml, respectively. When used in combination, the extract-nanoparticle mixture showed equally potent antibacterial activity at a much lower concentration of 2.5 μg/ml extract + 0.5 μg/ml nanoparticle. Given its high antibacterial potential, the fungal extract can be a promising source of novel drug lead compounds. The extract – silver nanoparticle mixture exhibited synergism in their antibacterial efficacy. This property can be further used to formulate new age drugs.

Illuminating the Anticancerous Efficacy of a New Fungal Chassis for Silver Nanoparticle Synthesis

“…These findings suggested that the cell death had occurred which may be due to necrosis or apoptosis. The cytotoxic effects probably occurred due to the interference of Ag NPs with the proper functioning of the protein leading to the change in the cellular chemistry also suggested by Rogers et al (2008) and Rajpal et al (2016a,b). Several researchers have suggested that once the Ag NPs penetrates inside the cells, they may cause partial unfolding and cause aggregation of the proteins and also interact with thiol rich enzymes (Morones et al, 2005; Zolghadri et al, 2009).…”

“…Therefore, it is desirable to develop biocompatible and profitable methods that can either passively or actively target cancerous cells, thereby reducing adverse side effects while improving therapeutic efficacy. Biosynthesized nanoparticles have paved the way and attracted researchers across the world due to their specific properties and wide applications in biomedical sciences (Shin et al, 2009; Zhou et al, 2011; Aziz et al, 2015, 2016; Rajpal et al, 2016a; Khan et al, 2017). Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) have potential to treat a variety of diseases, such as retinal neovascularisation (Ong et al, 2013) and have been investigated among the emerging nanoproducts and novel cancer therapeutics.…”

Characterization of Degradation Products of Selpercatinib by Mass Spectrometry: Optimization of Stability-Indicating HPLC Method for Separation and Quantification of Process Related Impurities of Selpercatinib

“…Method validation: The developed method underwent validation to ensure its suitability analyzing selpercatinib and its impurities. Parameters such as specificity, accuracy, precision, linearity, sensitivity, ruggedness and reproducibility were evaluated according ICH guidelines [13][14][15] and literature [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23].…”

Onion Seed Essential Oil-Grafted Zerovalent Copper Nanoparticles as Promising Material for Supercapacitor Electrodes in Energy Storage Device

“…The combination of green synthesis and pseudo-capacitors holds promise for advancing energy storage technologies with a focus on sustainability [6,7]. Ongoing research is likely to uncover new green synthesis methods, novel materials and optimized device designs for improved performance and widespread practical applications [8]. Onion seeds, derived from the onion plant (Allium cepa), are small, dry seeds that serve as the reproductive units of the onion flower [9].…”