INTRODUCTION

As a growing direction, nano-based therapy has become a successful paradigm used to address the phytogenic delivery-related problems in overcoming multivirulent vancomycin-resistant (VRSA) infection.

METHODS

Hence, our aim was to develop and assess a novel nanocarrier system (mesoporous silica nanoparticles, MPS-NPs) for free berberine (Free-BR) as an antimicrobial alkaloid against strong biofilm-producing and multi-virulent VRSA strains using and mouse model.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Our outcomes demonstrated vancomycin resistance in 13.7% of () strains categorized as VRSA. Notably, strong biofilm formation was observed in 69.2% of VRSA strains that were all positive for gene. All strong biofilm-producing VRSA strains harbored a minimum of two virulence genes comprising and with 44.4% of them possessing all five virulence genes (, , , , and ), and 88.9% being multi-virulent. The study findings affirmed excellent antimicrobial and antibiofilm properties of BR-loaded MPS-NPs. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) assay displayed the downregulating role of BR-loaded MPS-NPs on strong biofilm-producing and multi-virulent VRSA strains virulence and genes in both and mice models. Additionally, BR-loaded MPS-NPs supplementation has a promising role in attenuating the upregulated expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines' genes in VRSA-infected mice with attenuation in pro-apoptotic genes expression resulting in reduced VRSA-induced apoptosis. In essence, the current study recommends the future scope of using BR-loaded MPS-NPs as auspicious alternatives for antimicrobials with tremendous antimicrobial, antibiofilm, anti-quorum sensing (QS), and anti-virulence effectiveness against problematic strong biofilm-producing and multi-virulent VRSA-associated infections.