Biologically synthesized silver nanoparticles as potent antibacterial effective against multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Abstract

Abstract Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most worrisome infectious bacteria due to its intrinsic and acquired resistance against several antibiotics and the recalcitrance of its infections; hence, the development of novel antimicrobials effective against multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa is mandatory. In this work, silver nanoparticles obtained by green synthesis using a leaf extract and fungi were tested against a battery of clinical strains from cystic fibrosis, pneumonia and burnt patients, some of them with multidrug resistance. Both nanoparticles showed a potent antibacterial effect, causing severe damage to the cell wall, membrane and DNA, and inducing the production of reactive oxygen species. Moreover, the nanoparticles derived from fungi showed synergistic antibacterial effects with the antibiotics meropenem and levofloxacin for some clinical strains and both kinds of nanoparticles were nontoxic for larvae of the moth Galleria mellonella, encouraging further research for their implementation in the treatment of P. aeruginosa infections.