Antifungal activity and cytotoxicity study of ZrO2-ZnO bimetallic nanoparticles

Abstract

Antifungal resistance of Candida species is a growing concern worldwide. Therefore, this study presents the synthesis of ZnO and ZrO2-ZnO nanoparticles. Structural features of the nanoparticles are characterized by DLS, SEM, EDX, UV–Visible and Raman spectroscopy. Thereafter, the investigation of the effect of these nanoparticles on Candida species was performed by disk diffusion and broth microdilution method on C. albicans, C. dubliniensis, C. glabrata, and C. tropicalis. The viability activity was also evaluated. Scanning electron microscopy showed spherically shaped nanoparticles while dynamic light scattering analysis showed ZrO2 (76 nm), ZnO (22 nm) and ZrO2-ZnO samples between 26 nm and 34 nm respectively. The elemental analysis validated that pure samples were synthesized. The Raman spectra shows ZnO nanoparticles of the wurtzite crystal structure having a group theory that confirms the presence of optic nodes with different properties. Our investigations have shown that mixing ZrO2 with ZnO nanoparticles only show inhibition effect on Candida species at high concentration of ZnO against ZrO2 based on the inhibition zone formed in the disk diffusion and the decrease in the growth characteristics recorded from the broth microdilution analysis. The viability study shows that there is no significance difference in viability as a function of time and concentration on the peripheral human mononuclear cells on exposure to the synthesized nanoparticles.