Abstract
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a bacterium producing industrially utile metabolites, such as rhamnolipids, biopolymers, and pigments. Pyocyanin, the most studied example of pigments, is a virulence factor that also shows the potential for application in, e.g., agriculture, anticancer therapy, and energy production. Therefore, potential inhibitors and stimulants of pyocyanin production by P. aeruginosa should be studied, and nanomaterials may cause both effects. The study aimed to examine the influence of zinc oxide and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (pristine or dispersed with alginic acid) on pyocyanin production by P. aeruginosa. First, the influence of different concentrations of nanomaterials (500.00–0.06 µg/mL) on culture optical density and biofilm formation was studied. These results helped select concentrations for further tests, i.e., growth curves and fluorescence measurements. Pyocyanin production was assessed by the chloroform–hydrochloric acid method. SEM analysis was conducted to assess the influence of nanomaterials on the cell's integrity and biofilm structure. Pristine multi-walled carbon nanotubes exhibited a stimulative effect on pigment production when applied in high concentrations (500.00 µg/mL), while dispersed material enhanced the production in lowered dosages (125.00 µg/mL). On the other hand, high concentrations of zinc oxide inhibited pyocyanin production, while minor increased bioproduct production. The research indicates the potential to use nanomaterials as the modulators of pyocyanin production and other metabolites.
Highlights
Over the last decades, nanomaterials have gained more and more attention due to their application potential in different branches of industry, e.g., electronics, photocatalysis, Submitted to special issue NANO 2021 within the 9th International Conference “Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials” NANO-2021.Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen belonging to the ESKAPE group, often associated with nosocomial infections and complications in cystic1 3 Vol.:(0123456789)Applied Nanoscience (2022) 12:1929–1940 fibrosis patients (Hall et al 2016; Grygorcewicz et al 2020)
Many researchers focus on eliminating P. aeruginosa employing different nanomaterials, mainly metal oxides (Lee et al 2014; Zanni et al 2017; Saleh et al 2019; El-Deeb et al 2020; Ali et al 2020; Najafi et al 2021) it was reported that Pseudomonas spp. biofilm formation or cell respiration can be stimulated by nanomaterials, such as silver nanoparticles, zinc oxide, and hybrid nanomaterial consisting of silica nanotubes modified with titanium dioxide (Yang and Alvarez 2015; Augustyniak et al 2020; Ouyang et al 2020)
For MWCNT dispersed with AA, higher optical density was noted for concentrations ranging from 500.00 to 15.63 μg/mL (Fig. 1e)
Summary
Nanomaterials have gained more and more attention due to their application potential in different branches of industry, e.g., electronics, photocatalysis, Submitted to special issue NANO 2021 within the 9th International Conference “Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials” NANO-2021.Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen belonging to the ESKAPE group, often associated with nosocomial infections and complications in cystic1 3 Vol.:(0123456789)Applied Nanoscience (2022) 12:1929–1940 fibrosis patients (Hall et al 2016; Grygorcewicz et al 2020). Many researchers focus on eliminating P. aeruginosa employing different nanomaterials, mainly metal oxides (Lee et al 2014; Zanni et al 2017; Saleh et al 2019; El-Deeb et al 2020; Ali et al 2020; Najafi et al 2021) it was reported that Pseudomonas spp. biofilm formation or cell respiration can be stimulated by nanomaterials, such as silver nanoparticles, zinc oxide, and hybrid nanomaterial consisting of silica nanotubes modified with titanium dioxide (Yang and Alvarez 2015; Augustyniak et al 2020; Ouyang et al 2020) Following these findings, it may be hypothesized that nanomaterials can influence the production of bacterial pigments. The data about the use of different types of nanomaterials, e.g., carbon nanomaterials, to influence pyocyanin production appears to be insufficient
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