Title

Enhancement of antibiotics antimicrobial activity due to the silver nanoparticles impact on the cell membrane

Author

Roberto Vazquez-Munoz

Contributor

ANAID MEZA VILLEZCAS (Collaborator)

PIERRICK GERARD JEAN FOURNIER (Collaborator)

Elizabeth Soria Castro (Collaborator)

KARLA OYUKY JUAREZ MORENO (Collaborator)

ANA LUCIA GALLEGO HERNANDEZ (Collaborator)

NINA BOGDANCHIKOVA (Collaborator)

Rafael Vázquez Duhalt (Collaborator)

ALEJANDRO HUERTA SAQUERO (Collaborator)

Access level

Open Access

Alternative identifier

doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224904

Summary or description

The ability of microorganisms to generate resistance outcompetes with the generation of new and efficient antibiotics; therefore, it is critical to develop novel antibiotic agents and treatments to control bacterial infections. An alternative to this worldwide problem is the use of nanomaterials with antimicrobial properties. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been extensively studied due to their antimicrobial effect in different organisms. In this work, the synergistic antimicrobial effect of AgNPs and conventional antibiotics was assessed in Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. AgNPs minimal inhibitory concentration was 10–12 μg mL-1 in all bacterial strains tested, regardless of their different susceptibility against antibiotics. Interestingly, a synergistic antimicrobial effect was observed when combining AgNPs and kanamycin according to the fractional inhibitory concentration index, FICI: <0.5), an additive effect by combining AgNPs and chloramphenicol (FICI: 0.5 to 1), whereas no effect was found with AgNPs and β-lactam antibiotics combinations. Flow cytometry and TEM analysis showed that sublethal concentrations of AgNPs (6–7 μg mL-1) altered the bacterial membrane potential and caused ultrastructural damage, increasing the cell membrane permeability. No chemical interactions between AgNPs and antibiotics were detected. We propose an experimental supported mechanism of action by which combinatorial effect of antimicrobials drives synergy depending on their specific target, facilitated by membrane alterations generated by AgNPs. Our results provide a deeper understanding about the synergistic mechanism of AgNPs and antibiotics, aiming to combat antimicrobial infections efficiently, especially those by multi-drug resistant microorganisms, in order to mitigate the current crisis due to antibiotic resistance. © 2019 Vazquez-Muñoz et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publisher

Yogendra Kumar Mishra, Institute of Materials Science, Germany

Publish date

2019

Publication type

Article

Publication version

Published Version

Format

application/pdf

Source

PLoS ONE, Vol.14, No.11, Pags. 1-18

Language

English

Source repository

Repositorio Institucional CICESE

Downloads

13

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