Infection and Drug Resistance (Jul 2019)
Evaluation of Nano-curcumin effects on expression levels of virulence genes and biofilm production of multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from burn wound infection in Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Aref Shariati,1,2 Elham Asadian,3 Fatemeh Fallah,1 Taher Azimi,4,5 Ali Hashemi,1 Javad Yasbolaghi Sharahi,1 Majid Taati Moghadam2,61Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 2Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 3Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 4Department of Pathobiology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 5Students Scientific Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 6Student Research Committee, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranBackground: P. aeruginosa is considered as one of the most important pathogens, and high antibiotic resistance to P. aeruginosa has become an alarming concern. This study attempts to further improve curcumin solubility and stability by producing the involved nanoparticle and investigate the effect of this nanoparticle on those virulence genes of P. aeruginosa in pathogenicity and biofilm formation.Methods: In this study, the curcumin nanoparticles were synthesized and characterized, and the antibacterial and antibiofilm effects of Nano-curcumin and curcumin were investigated by microdilution broth and microtiter plate, respectively. In addition, cytotoxic effect of Nano-curcumin on human epithelial cell lines (A549) was determined. The effects of Nano-curcumin on P. aeruginosa virulence genes, mexD, mexB, and mexT (efflux pumps), lecA (adhesion), nfxB (negative regulator of MexCD-OprJ), and rsmZ (biofilm formation) were determined using real-time quantitative PCR.Results: Synthesized Nano-curcumins were soluble in water, which inhibited the growth of multidrug-resistant (MDR) P. aeruginosa at 128 μg/mL, whereas it was inhibited at 256 μg/mL for soluble curcumin in DMSO. Sub-inhibitory concentrations of Nano-curcumin reduced biofilm formation and, at 64 μg/mL, disrupted 58% of the established bacterial biofilms. In addition, curcumin nanoparticle downregulated the transcription of virulence genes except nfxB and exerted no cytotoxic effect on human epithelial cell lines (A549).Conclusions: Results suggest that Nano-curcumin could be potentially used to reduce P. aeruginosa virulence and biofilm. However, in vivo studies with respect to an animal model are necessary to validate these results.Keywords: curcumin, Nano-curcumin, antimicrobial activity, virulence factor, burn wound, biofilm
