School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
PLoS One. 2020 Jul 23;15(7):e0236441. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236441. eCollection 2020.
Biofilms are microbial communities embedded in an extracellular polymeric matrix and display an enhanced tolerance to the action of antimicrobials. The emergence of novel functionalised nanoparticles is considered a promising avenue for the development of biofilm-specific antimicrobial technologies. However, there is a gap in the understanding of interactions between nanoparticles and the biofilm matrix. Particularly, questions are raised on how nanoparticle charge and surface groups play a role in aggregation when in contact with biofilm components. Herein we present the synthesis of four types of silica nanoparticles and undertake an analysis of their interactions with Pseudomonas fluorescens biofilm matrix. The effect of the biofilm matrix components on the charge and aggregation of the nanoparticles was assessed. Additionally, the study focused on the role of matrix proteins, with the in-depth characterisation of the protein corona of each nanoparticle by Liquid Chromatography with Tandem Mass Spectrometry experiments. The protein corona composition is dependent on the nanoparticle type; non-functionalised nanoparticles show less protein selectivity, whereas carboxylate-functionalised nanoparticles prefer proteins with a higher isoelectric point. These outcomes provide insights into the field of biofilm-nanoparticle interactions that can be valuable for the design of new nano-based targeting systems in future anti-biofilm applications.
生物膜是嵌入在细胞外聚合物基质中的微生物群落，对抗菌剂的作用表现出更强的耐受性。新型功能化纳米粒子的出现被认为是开发针对生物膜的抗菌技术的有前途的途径。然而，人们对纳米粒子与生物膜基质之间的相互作用的理解还存在差距。特别是，当与生物膜成分接触时，关于纳米粒子的电荷和表面基团如何在聚集中发挥作用的问题引起了关注。本文介绍了四种类型的硅基纳米粒子的合成，并对其与荧光假单胞菌生物膜基质的相互作用进行了分析。评估了生物膜基质成分对纳米粒子电荷和聚集的影响。此外，该研究还侧重于基质蛋白的作用，通过液相色谱-串联质谱实验深入表征了每种纳米粒子的蛋白冠组成。蛋白冠组成取决于纳米粒子的类型；未功能化的纳米粒子显示出较低的蛋白质选择性，而羧酸功能化的纳米粒子则更喜欢等电点较高的蛋白质。这些结果为生物膜-纳米粒子相互作用领域提供了新的见解，这对于未来抗生物膜应用中新型基于纳米的靶向系统的设计可能非常有价值。
