Study of pH‐dependent fluorescent property of fluoroquinolone antibiotics

Abstract

Antibiotics are probably known as "wonder drugs" that inhibit bacterial growth or kill bacteria. Fluoroquinolones (FQNs) are broad-spectrum synthetic antibiotics having excellent oral absorption and outstanding biocompatibility. It was found that some of the antibiotics themselves have a fluorescent property, and this fluorescent ability of these antibiotics has potential applications in infection diagnosis, detection of antibiotics in the environment, tracking the antibiotic uptake, and the detection of bacterial infections. In this study, we have studied the influence of pH (2-12) on fluorescence intensity, UV-Vis absorption, and surface charge properties of fluorescent antibiotics, such as moxifloxacin, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, levofloxacin, and norfloxacin. The purposed study is an easy, simple way of finding the presence of antibiotics and tracking bacterial infection by changing the pH value of the medium.