Anti-Candidal Activity and In Vitro Cytotoxicity Assessment of Graphene Nanoplatelets Decorated with Zinc Oxide Nanorods.

Graziella Ficociello,Patrizia Mancini,Giusy Trillò,Maria De Caris,Daniela Uccelletti,Domenico Cavallini,Maria Sarto

doi:10.3390/nano8100752

Graziella Ficociello, Patrizia Mancini + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/nano8100752

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Journal: Nanomaterials	Publication Date: Sep 21, 2018
Citations: 27	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Sapienza University of Rome

Abstract

Candida albicans is the most common pathogenic fungus that is isolated in nosocomial infections in medically and immune-compromised patients. The ability of C. albicans to convert its form from yeast to hyphal morphology contributes to biofilm development that effectively shelters Candida against the action of antifungals molecules. In the last years, nanocomposites are the most promising solutions against drug-resistant microorganisms. The aim of this study was to investigate the antifungal activity of graphene nanoplateles decorated with zinc oxide nanorods (ZNGs) against the human pathogen Candida albicans. We observed that ZNGs were able to induce a significant mortality in fungal cells, as well as to affect the main virulence factors of this fungus or rather the hyphal development and biofilm formation. Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) formation in yeast cells resulted one of the mechanisms of ZNGs to induce mortality. Finally, the toxicity of this nanomaterial was tested also on human keratinocyte cell line HaCaT. Our data indicated that ZNGs resulted not toxic when their aggregation state decreased by adding glycerol as emulsifier to ZNGs suspensions or when HaCaT cells were grown on ZNGs-coated glasses. Overall, the results that were obtained indicated that ZNGs could be exploited as an antifungal nanomaterial with a high degree of biocompatibility on human cells.

Highlights

IntroductionThe worldwide incidence of infectious diseases continues to increase, and causative microorganisms are increasingly showing (multi-)drug resistance
The worldwide incidence of infectious diseases continues to increase, and causative microorganisms are increasingly showingdrug resistance.Microorganisms such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans are part of the human microbiota
Since we have previously demonstrated that the human cell lines HaCaT and MCF7 show a very low cytotoxicity when exposed to zinc oxide (ZnO)-NRs and ZnO-MRs [38], in this report, we wondered whether HaCaT cells had a low cytotoxicity towards ZnO-NRs-decorated GNPs (ZNGs)

Summary

Introduction

The worldwide incidence of infectious diseases continues to increase, and causative microorganisms are increasingly showing (multi-)drug resistance. Microorganisms such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans are part of the human microbiota. When the host immune defense system become weakened it can cause infections. This fungus represents the fourth-greatest cause of bloodstream infections and together with other opportunistic pathogens that are commonly colonized the human oral mucosa [2]. The pathogenicity of Candida species depends on a variety of determinants such as adhesion factors, germ tube and hyphal and biofilm formation [4]. The germ tube formation represents the transition from a budding state to hyphal cells and it is known to facilitate yeast adherence to epithelial cells and promote the aggregation of yeast cells [5]

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