Abstract
Onychomycosis is a widely distributed fungal nail infection which can be caused by dermatophytes, yeasts or non-dermatophytic fungi. In our study a total of 7 species related to 4 genera were isolated from 50 patients suspected with the fungal nail infection (onychomycosis) these namely Aspergillus flavus (8 isolates), Aspergillus niger (13 isolates), Candida albicans (8 isolates), C. tropicalis (5 isolates), Epidermophyton floccosum (1 isolate), Trichophyton mentagrophytes (2 isolates) and Trichophyton rubrum (1 isolate). Nowadays the field of nanotechnology becomes one of the most topics of interest. The impact of gold nanoparticles on the isolated fungal species was evaluated by agar well diffusion method and micro-dilution method. Best antifungal activity of gold nanoparticles was observed by using 100 µl of AuNps containing 20 µg of gold nanoparticles with the greatest zone of inhibition (19 mm) against C. albicans. AuNps showed variable MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration). MIC50 and MIC90 values of AuNPs ranged from 3.125 to 25.0 μg/ml and from 12.5 to100 μg/ml respectively. All isolated fungi could grow on keratin agar medium but with variable degrees indicating their ability to hydrolyze keratin. Keratinase activity in presence and absence of AuNPs was determined for dermatophytes and Aspergillus species. AuNPs had an inhibitory effect causing reduction in keratinase enzyme activity reaching 52.17 %, 40 % and 37.5 % was attained in case of E. floccosum, A. flavus and A. niger (the most susceptible isolates) respectively, by application of 20 µg/ml of AuNPs.
Highlights
Onychomycosis is a superficial fungal infection, of the human nails, that is wide distributed worldwide leading to discoloration, nail plate thickening, and onycholysis (Adams et al, 2015; Soltani et al, 2015)
In this study a total of 7 species belonging to 4 genera were isolated from 50 patients suspected with the fungal nail infection.The obtained fungi were Aspergillus flavus (8 isolates), A. niger (13 isolates), Candida albicans (8 isolates), C. tropicalis (5 isolates), Epidermophyton floccosum (1 isolate), Trichophyton mentagrophytes (2 isolates) and T. rubrum (1 isolate)
The antifungal activity of AUNPs was tested against Aspergillus flavus (8 isolates), A.niger (13 isolates), Candida albicans (8 isolates), C.tropicalis (5 isolates), Epidermophyton floccosum (1 isolate), Trichophyton mentagrophytes (2 isolates) and T. rubrum (1 isolate) by two methods namely agar well diffusion method and microdilution method
Summary
Onychomycosis is a superficial fungal infection, of the human nails, that is wide distributed worldwide leading to discoloration, nail plate thickening, and onycholysis (Adams et al, 2015; Soltani et al, 2015). Onychomycosis is used to describe fungal infection of one or more of the nail units and can be caused by dermatophytes (e.g. Epidermophyton, Microsporum and Trichophyton species), yeasts (e.g. Candida species) and non-dermatophytic fungi (Aspergillus species) (Weitzman and Summerbell, 1995; Kaur et al, 2008; Babayani et al, 2018). Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have attracted a great deal of interest and are the subject of intensive studies in biology and medicine owing to their extraordinary physicochemical properties, such as atmospheric stability, resistance to oxidation, surface functionalization, and biocompatibility (Loomba and Scarabelli, 2013). Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) generally are considered to be biologically inert but can be engineered to possess chemical or photothermal functionality (Li et al, 2014). The present study was designed to evaluate the impact of gold nanoparticles on the dermatophytic and nondermatophytic fungi isolated from cases of onychomycosis as well as on their keratinase activity
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