Inappropriate use of antibiotics is the main reason for the microorganisms to develop methods to increase their resistance to these antimicrobial agents. Scientists are developing new antibiotics to fight bacterial infections, but bacteria reproduce fast and the number of resistant bacteria increases exponentially. Nowadays, Nanotechnology is helping areas such as medicine by using nanoparticles to develop new treatments for different health conditions. Because of their size, 1-100 nanometers, these nanoparticles are a useful tool in medicine and engineering. Some studies have been published about the antimicrobial properties of silver nanoparticles. This study presents the antimicrobial effects of enhanced antibiotics mixed with silver, gold, and zinc oxide nanoparticles. Our goal is to develop more effective treatments against resistant bacteria infections, by increasing the potential of antibiotics mixed with nanoparticles, or developing new antimicrobial agents using nanoparticles. Three antibiotics, Gentamicin, Ciprofloxaxin, and Cephalexin, of three different concentrations were chosen to perform this study against Escherichia coli (ATCC # 10536) and Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC # BAA-1026). Nanoparticles of Gold, Silver and ZnO were chosen to mix with antibiotics. Our results revealed that some nanoparticles increased the potential of a specific concentration of antibiotics while in other concentrations of antibiotics mixed with nanoparticles, nanoparticles decreased the potential of the antibiotics.  Keywords: Nano/Materials, nanoparticles, antibiotics, antimicrobial effects

Antimicrobial effects of enhanced antibiotics mixed with silver, gold and ZnO nanoparticles

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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