Evaluation of antitoxic ability of carbon nanomaterials with respect to Hg2 + mercury ions using Escherichia coli cells

Abstract

The unique physical and chemical characteristics of C60-fullerene determine the opportunity of creating a new generation of drugs on its basis. At the same time, various agents are already being created based on derivatives of fullerenes, which are effectively used in ecology and biomedicine as antibacterial and antiviral drugs, anticancer agents, and agents that inhibit certain enzymes. In this regard, there was investigated the possibility of using water-soluble derivatives of C60-fullerene as substances with sorbing activity against Hg (II) ions using two bioluminescent test systems based on recombinant Escherichia coli strains, one of which is E. coli K12 TG1 pF1 with Vibrio fischeri’s integrated luxCDABE gene cassette had a constitutive luminescence and the integral response to the effects of C60-fullerne derivatives was evaluated by the severity of bioluminescence quenching in the experimental sample relative to the control sample, which allowed us to calculate the relative changes in the intensity of bioluminescence as a reflection of a possible developing toxic effect Hg2 + and E. coli K12 MG1655 pMerR’::lux, carrying a hybrid plasmid with the merR gene and the merTPFAD operon promoter activated by it, inserted in front of the LuxCDABE gene cassette Photorhabdus luminescens which, due to its similar genetic construction, had a low background bioluminescence and multiply amplified in the presence of Hg2 + ions due to the parallel induction of mer and lux operons. The studies involved 6 derivatives of C60-fullern, the analysis of the antitoxic effect of which revealed comparable activity in some of them in comparison with the traditional drug Unithiol based on sodium 2,3-dimercapto-1-propanesulfonate. Moreover, the studies made it possible to consider derivatives of C60-fullerene as new nanostructured agents that have antitoxic effects on mercury ions and allows us to expand the list of biological models of a higher organization for further research in this area.