Anticandidal potentiality of biosynthesized and decorated nanometals with fucoidan

Abstract

Abstract Candida genus includes many hazardous and risky species that can develop resistance toward various antifungal types. Metals nanoparticles (NPs) possess powerful antimicrobial actions, but their potential human toxicity could limit their practices. The algal polysaccharide fucoidan (Fu) was extracted from the macro-brown algae, Cystoseira barbata, analyzed, and used for biosynthesizing nanoparticles of silver (Ag-NPs) and selenium (Se-NPs). The extracted Fu had elevated fucose levels (58.73% of total monosaccharides) and exhibited the main biochemical characteristic of customary Fu. The Fu biosynthesis of Ag-NPs and Se-NPs was achieved via facile direct protocol; Fu-synthesized NPs had 12.86 and 16.18 nm average diameters, respectively. The ultrastructure of Fu-synthesized NPs emphasized well-distributed and spherical particles that were embedded/capped in Fu as combined clusters. The Fu/Ag-NPs and Fu/Se-NPs anticandidal assessments, against Candida albicans, Candida glabrata, and Candida parapsilosis, revealed that both NPs had powerful fungicidal actions against the examined pathogens. The ultrastructure imaging of subjected C. albicans and C. parapsilosis to NPs revealed that Fu/Ag-NPs and Fu/Se-NPs triggered remarkable distortions, pore formation, and destructive lysis in cell surfaces within 10 h of exposure. The innovative usage of C. barbata Fu for Ag-NP and Se-NP synthesis and the application of their composites as powerful anticandidal agents, with minimized human toxicity, are concluded.