Abstract
Dialyzed natural polymer, fibroin, from Bombyx mori was used to synthesize biocompatible silver and gold nanoparticles in-situ in dispersion form. The films of pure fibroin (PF), fibroin-silver nanocomposite (FSNC) and fibroin-gold nanocomposite (FGNC) were fabricated by drop casting method. The characterization of the resultant dispersion and films was performed by visual color change, UV-Vis spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. The dispersions of PF, FSNC and FGNC were tested for antibacterial activity against E. coli NCIM 2065, S. aureus NCIM 5021, K. pneumoniae NCIM 2957, P. aeruginosa ATCC 9027 and antifungal activity against A. fumigatus NCIM 902. FSNC dispersion exhibited an effective antimicrobial action against all the tested microbes as compared to FGNC dispersion. The mechanism of action for FSNC and FGNC against these microorganisms is proposed. Additionally, the larvicidal activity of the films was investigated against the larvae of Aedes aegypti. The films of FSNC exhibited 100% mortality while the films of FGNC revealed 86–98% mortality against all the larval instars and pupae of A. aegypti. The phytotoxicity study of the nanocomposite films was also carried out to confirm the reusability of water. This is first noble metal nanocomposite based report on larvicidal activity of zika virus vector.
Highlights
With metal nanoparticles have been widely explored for wound dressing
The silk fibroin dispersion and film corresponding to silver nanoparticles (Fig. 1a and c) reveal a broad surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak around 350–550 nm
The gold nanoparticles captured in silk solution as well as in film exhibit a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak at 520 nm, which is a characteristic peak for gold nanoparticles as displayed in Fig. 1b and d, respectively[41]
Summary
Received: 15 June 2017 Accepted: 27 October 2017 Published: xx xx xxxx on-site Zika Virus Vector Larvicidal Activities with its Mode of Action. With metal nanoparticles have been widely explored for wound dressing As these nanocomposite materials hold low antimicrobial activity, allergenicity, toxic effects and poor adhesiveness, they might not lead to extensive therapeutic applications[11]. Likewise, another challenging issue is the insects control and their increased resistance to many of the existing insecticides. Keeping in mind the above aspects, we generated silver and gold nanoparticles based silk fibroin nanocomposite dispersions and films by using clean, green and facile method with promising antimicrobial as well as larvicidal (A. aegypti) activities. It has been well established that the bactericidal activity of nanoparticles escalates when they are immobilized (primarily due to contact-mode killing mechanism) in comparison to free nanoparticles in dispersion which are susceptible to spontaneous aggregation limiting bactericidal efficacy[38,39]
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