International Journal of Nanomedicine (Oct 2020)
Antibacterial Activity of Chitosan Nanoparticles Against Pathogenic N. gonorrhoea
Abstract
Fulwah Alqahtani,1,* Fadilah Aleanizy,1,* Eram El Tahir,1 Hiba Alhabib,1 Raghad Alsaif,1 Gamal Shazly,1,2 Hajar AlQahtani,3 Ibrahim Alsarra,1 Jafar Mahdavi4 1Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 2Department of Industrial Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt; 3Department of Pharmacy Services, King Abdul-Aziz Medical City, Ministry of National Guard, Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 4School of Life Sciences, Centre for Biomolecular Sciences, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, UK*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Fulwah AlqahtaniDepartment of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, P.O. Box: 22452, Riyadh 11495, Saudi ArabiaTel +966-11-8051478Email [email protected]: The emergence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains that are resistant to the most commonly used antibiotics represents a great concern for global public health. This challenges the effectiveness of clinical treatment regimens and demands the development of alternative antigonococcal agent. In this regard, chitosan nanoparticles (CNPs) are known to have antimicrobial activity against a wide range of pathogens. Thus, they have become a potential candidate for combatting this era of multi-drug resistance. This study aims to formulate CNPs, characterize their physicochemical properties, and examine their antimicrobial activity against gonococcus.Materials and Methods: The ionic gelation method was used to prepare CNPs of different concentrations. Characterization for their particle size (PZ), polydispersity index (PDI), and zeta potential (ZP) was performed. The anti-microbial activity of CNPs was investigated against 13 WHO N. gonorrhoeae reference strains, using the broth dilution method. Cytotoxicity of CNPs and their effect on bacterial adhesion to HeLa cells were investigated.Results: The average PZ and ZP of the prepared NPs were increased when the concentration of chitosan was increased from 1 to 5 mg/mL and found to be in the range of 193 nm ± 1.9 to 530 nm ± 13.3, and 14 mV ± 0.5 to 20 mV ± 1, respectively. Transmission electron microscopes (TEM) images revealed spherical NPs, and the NPs had a low PDI value of ≤ 0.27. The formed CNPs produced antibacterial activity against all tested strains, including those resistant to multiple antibiotics, with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC90) of 0.16 to 0.31 mg/mL and a minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of 0.31 to 0.61 mg/mL. Of note, at all MIC90 and MBC, the CNPs had no significant cytotoxic effect on HeLa cells and reduced bacterial adhesion to these cells at MBC doses.Conclusion: The present work findings suggest the potential of the CNPs for the treatment of gonorrhoea.Keywords: N. gonorrhoeae, chitosan nanoparticles, antimicrobial, adhesion
