Effect of antimicrobial nanocomposites on Vibrio cholerae lifestyles: Pellicle biofilm, planktonic and surface-attached biofilm

ANAID MEZA VILLEZCAS (2019)

Vibrio cholerae is an important human pathogen causing intestinal disease with a high incidence in developing countries. V. cholerae can switch between planktonic and biofilm lifestyles. Biofilm formation is determinant for transmission, virulence and antibiotic resistance. Due to the enhanced antibiotic resistance observed by bacterial pathogens, antimicrobial nanomaterials have been used to combat infections by stopping bacterial growth and preventing biofilm formation. In this study, the effect of the nanocomposites zeolite-embedded silver (Ag), copper (Cu), or zinc (Zn) nanoparticles (NPs) was evaluated in V. cholerae planktonic cells, and in two biofilm states: pellicle biofilm (PB), formed between air-liquid interphase, and surface-attached biofilm (SB), formed at solid-liquid interfaces. Each nanocomposite type had a distinctive antimicrobial effect altering each V. cholerae lifestyles differently. The ZEO-AgNPs nanocomposite inhibited PB formation at 4 μg/ml, and prevented SB formation and eliminated planktonic cells at 8 μg/ml. In contrast, the nanocomposites ZEO-CuNPs and ZEO-ZnNPs affect V. cholerae viability but did not completely avoid bacterial growth. At transcriptional level, depending on the nanoparticles and biofilm type, nanocomposites modified the relative expression of the vpsL, rbmA and bap1, genes involved in biofilm formation. Furthermore, the relative abundance of the outer membrane proteins OmpT, OmpU, OmpA and OmpW also differs among treatments in PB and SB. This work provides a basis for further study of the nanomaterials effect at structural, genetic and proteomic levels to understand the response mechanisms of V. cholerae against metallic nanoparticles. © 2019 Meza-Villezcas et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Artículo

bacterial protein, copper nanoparticle, nanocomposite, OmpT protein, OmpU protein, OmpW protein, outer membrane protein A, silver nanoparticle, unclassified drug, zeolite, zinc nanoparticle, antiinfective agent, copper, metal nanoparticle, nanocompos BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA MICROBIOLOGÍA MICROBIOLOGÍA