Hierarchical Assembly of Nanodimensional Silver-Silver Oxide Physical Gels Controlling Nosocomial Infections

Anupam Roy; Suneel Kumar Srivastava; Shanker Lal Shrivastava; Amit Kumar Mandal

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c04957

Hierarchical Assembly of Nanodimensional Silver-Silver Oxide Physical Gels Controlling Nosocomial Infections

ACS Omega. 2020 Dec 9;5(50):32617-32631. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c04957. eCollection 2020 Dec 22.

Authors

Anupam Roy^{1

2}, Suneel Kumar Srivastava³, Shanker Lal Shrivastava², Amit Kumar Mandal⁴

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Food Chemistry and Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, Ranchi 835215, Jharkhand, India.
² Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India.
³ Inorganic Nanomaterials and Polymer Nanocomposite Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India.
⁴ Chemical Biology Laboratory, Department of Sericulture, Raiganj University, Raiganj 733134, West Bengal, India.

Abstract

Microbial infections originating from medical care facilities are raising serious concerns across the globe. Therefore, nanotechnology-derived nanostructures have been investigated and explored due to their promising characteristics. In view of this, silver-based antimicrobial hydrogels as an alternative to antibiotic-based creams could play a crucial role in combating such infections. Toward this goal, we report a simple method for the synthesis and assembly of silver nanoparticles in a biopolymer physical gel derived from Abroma augusta plant in imparting antimicrobial properties against nosocomial pathogens. Synthesized silver nanoparticles (diameter, 30 ± 10 nm) were uniformly distributed inside the hydrogel. Such synthesized hydrogel assembly of silver nanoparticles dispersed in the biopolymer matrix exhibited hemocompatibility and antimicrobial and antibiofilm characteristics against nosocomial pathogens. The developed hydrogel as a surface coating offers reduced hardness and modulus value, thereby minimizing the brittleness tendency of the gel in the dried state. Hence, we believe that the hierarchical assembly of our hydrogel owing to its functional activity, host toxicity, and stability could possibly be used as an antimicrobial ointment for bacterial infection control.