The increasing prevalence of bacterial strains with resistance to conventional antibiotics is a major global healthcare problem. Strategies based on the cellular response of bacteria to antimicrobial agents have been followed to reduce the adaptive pressure on these bacteria. One of these strategies consists in damaging the bacterial membrane, which leads to leakage of intracellular constituents into the extracellular environment and changes in intracellular pH. Langmuir technique has been used to evaluate the interaction of several antibacterial agents with cell membrane models at the molecular level.<br/>In this work Vancomycin (VAC) - a widely used antibiotic with acquired bacteria resistance – was transformed sonochemically into nanoparticles (NPsVAC) which antibacterial efficiency was further evaluated on biomimetic bacterial membranes. The results indicate a higher membrane-VAC interaction when antibiotic is in nano-form rather than in solution.<br/>On the other hand, nanoparticles (NPs) during circulation in biological fluids are affected by the protein corona phenomenon that consists in the adsorption of biomolecules on the NPs surface altering thereby their targeting and efficiency. Thus, the bacterial membrane-NPsVAC interactions were also studied in corona effect conditions, in order to simulate the real application scenario.

Interactions of nano-size antibiotics with biomimetic bacterial cell membranes

251st National Meeting (2016)

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