Lohan Shikha, Raza Kaisar, Singla Saloni, Chhibber Sanjay, Wadhwa Sheetu, Katare O P, Kumar Pramod, Singh Bhupinder
UGC-Centre of Excellence in Applications of Nanomaterials, Nanoparticles and Nanocomposites (Biomedical Sciences), Panjab University, Chandigarh, India, 160 014.
Department of Pharmacy, School of Chemical Sciences and Pharmacy, Central University of Rajasthan, Bandar Sindri, Distt. Ajmer, Rajasthan, India, 305 817.
AAPS PharmSciTech. 2016 Oct;17(5):1042-8. doi: 10.1208/s12249-015-0430-x. Epub 2015 Oct 22.
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), owing to their inherently unique properties in the domain of biomedical sciences including drug delivery, offer an exciting platform to the researchers. Of late, their applications have also been successfully established. Recently, single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs) have been explored for antibacterial efficacy, but naïve multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) still remained unearthed. The present studies endeavor the investigation of the potential of various non-ionic surfactants in solubility enhancement of MWCNTs and their subsequent antibacterial efficacy against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Polysorbates offer more solubility to MWCNTs vis-à-vis the phospholipids. However, the antibacterial effect was found to be less influenced by solubility but significantly determined by the type of surfactant. Transmission electron photomicrographs confirmed significant adhesion of MWCNTs to the bacterial walls only in the presence of unsaturated phospholipids and this was expressed in the form of lowest minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of MWCNTs dispersed with the same. The findings are unique as MWCNTs were found to be active against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria to a similar extent, though somewhat milder than SWCNTs. However, when dispersed with unsaturated phospholipids, the former offer almost comparable antibacterial effects to that of the latter. The study opens a new research domain to further explore the antibacterial effects of non-functionalized and relatively safer MWCNTs, accentuating the importance of biocomponents like unsaturated phospholipids in this purview.
碳纳米管（CNTs）由于其在生物医学科学领域（包括药物递送）中固有的独特性质，为研究人员提供了一个令人兴奋的平台。最近，它们的应用也已成功确立。最近，人们探索了单壁碳纳米管（SWCNTs）的抗菌功效，但普通的多壁碳纳米管（MWCNTs）仍未被发掘。本研究致力于探讨各种非离子表面活性剂对MWCNTs溶解度的增强作用及其随后对大肠杆菌和金黄色葡萄球菌的抗菌功效。相对于磷脂，聚山梨酯能使MWCNTs具有更高的溶解度。然而，发现抗菌效果受溶解度的影响较小，而主要由表面活性剂的类型决定。透射电子显微镜照片证实，仅在存在不饱和磷脂的情况下，MWCNTs才会大量粘附在细菌细胞壁上，这表现为与不饱和磷脂分散的MWCNTs的最低最低抑菌浓度（MIC）值。这些发现很独特，因为发现MWCNTs对革兰氏阴性菌和革兰氏阳性菌的活性程度相似，尽管比SWCNTs稍弱。然而，当与不饱和磷脂分散时，前者的抗菌效果几乎与后者相当。该研究开启了一个新的研究领域，以进一步探索未功能化且相对安全的MWCNTs的抗菌效果，强调了不饱和磷脂等生物成分在这方面的重要性。
