A Synergistic Antimicrobial Mechanism of GO: Why Oxidative Stress Can Inactivate E. coli

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO), a 2D nanomaterial, is a promising material for medical application, thanks to its water solubility, antibacterial activity and relatively low cytotoxicity. However, many factors, such as lateral dimension, purity and surface chemistry, may influence its antibacterial activity, its exact mechanism is still unknown. In this work, E. coli was used as model bacterium to determine the antibacterial activity of well-dispersed GO which was obtained by a modified Hummer method and dialyzed to remove the salts and acid used in the oxidation process. After co-culture with GO for 2[Formula: see text]h, up to 90% E. coli cells were inactivated when GO concentration at 8[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]g/mL. The direct interaction was not detected in FE-SEM images and the results of [Formula: see text] potential showed that the interaction between GO and E. coli are repulsive[Formula: see text] Our results showed that GO can produce ROS and inactivate SOD and CAT enzymes in low concentration after co-cultured with E. coli which explained the antibacterial activity of GO in aqueous solution. Meanwhile, GO, with high purity, showed low cytotoxicity towards mammalian cells and did not cause any observable hemoglobin after co-cultured with blood cells. The data presented here prove that GO is effectively inhibit E. coli through inactivating SOD, CAT enzymes and the oxidative stress produced by ROS. Furthermore, the good biocompatibility promised its future application.