A new nanobiotic: synthesis and characterization of an albumin nanoparticle with intrinsic antibiotic activity

Mehrnaz Sheikh Hosseini; Zahra Moosavi-Nejad; Parisa Mohammadi

doi:10.18502/ijm.v15i5.13875

A new nanobiotic: synthesis and characterization of an albumin nanoparticle with intrinsic antibiotic activity

Iran J Microbiol. 2023 Oct;15(5):697-704. doi: 10.18502/ijm.v15i5.13875.

Authors

Mehrnaz Sheikh Hosseini¹, Zahra Moosavi-Nejad¹, Parisa Mohammadi²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.
² Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Background and objectives: With entering the "post-antibiotic era", antibiotic resistance is one of the most important problems in food security, health and medicine. Invention of nanoparticles with intrinsic antimicrobial activity has been provided a new tool to combat the problem, including some metal nanoparticles. But protein nanoparticles have been often used as nano-carrier for antibiotic drugs, not for their own antibiotic activity. In this article we have fabricated a very small BSA-NP without any chemical modification on BSA molecules showing antibacterial activity.

Materials and methods: Bovine serum albumin nanoparticle (BSA-NP) was synthesized using botton-up approach, by dissolution of BSA in urea-containing Tris buffer for 60 min at 60°C. Then, the BSA solution was dialyzed against distilled water in order to nanoparticle formation. The resulted BSA-NP has been characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS), field emission surface electron microscopy (FESEM), SDS-PAGE, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-spectrophotometery. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) method was used for evaluation of antibacterial activity of BSA-NP against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Results: The results obtained by DLS technique indicated that BSA molecules were self-assembled into small aggregates with a hydrodynamic diameter of 23.23 ± 2.1 nm. With a small polydispersity index (PDI=0.522), the nanoparticles had good spherical uniformity. The nanoparticles made from a single type of protein molecule (BSA) and have a relatively transparent appearance. The BSA-NPs caused a decrease in cell growth of both P. aeruginosa and S. aureus. Moreover, they had a bacteriostatic effect on P. aeruginosa (MIC=112×10^-5 μM).

Conclusion: In this study, using a green synthesis method, we succeeded in synthesizing a very small uniform BSA nanoparticles without any chemical modification on BSA molecules. It also has bacteriostatic properties against P. aeruginosa. Therefore, it is hypothesized that our BSA-NPs may be effective as a new approach to combat antibiotic resistance.

Keywords: Antibacterial activity; Antibiotic resistance; Bovine serum albumin; Green synthesis; Nanoparticles.