Use and over use of antibiotics has caused an increase in the number of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. With bacteria constantly evolving and humans are unable to discover new antibiotics to keep up with the pace of bacterial mutation. An era in which antibiotics are obsolete could occur within a few decades. To prepare for this post-antibiotic era, it is vital to explore novel nonantibiotic-based antibacterial drugs with high efficacy. This study was focused on designing a low-cost and efficient nanoparticle-based drug using copper and ascorbic acid. Such approach has resulted in a discovery of new drugs with improved antibacterial properties in comparison to conventional drugs. Synthesis was performed hydrothermally by reacting copper chloride with ascorbic acid and PVP to form polymer coated copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs). These Cu NPs were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS) thus far, and shown to exhibit improved cellular penetration via endocytosis, and the ability to trigger apoptosis in bacterial cells. The bacterial growth inhibition mechanism of Cu NPs will be studied using electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. Thus far, the antibacterial efficacy of Cu PNs was examined for Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa as well as for methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains. Our results revealed that copper-ascorbic acid NPs possess LD50 values below 20 µM, which is promising as compared to the values reported up to date. Further optimization of this system would lead this study towards eventual use of copper-ascorbic acid NPs to inhibit other antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains.

Improved antimicrobial properties of copper and ascorbic acid based nanoparticle systems: Advanced drugs for a post-antibiotic era

256th National Meeting (2018)

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