title: Tailored silica-antibiotic nanoparticles: overcoming bacterial resistance with low cytotoxicity.
abstract: New and more aggressive antibiotic resistant bacteria arise at an alarming rate and represent an ever-growing challenge to global health care systems. Consequently, the development of new antimicrobial agents is required to overcome the inefficiency of conventional antibiotics and bypass treatment limitations related to these pathologies. In this study, we present a synthesis protocol, which was able to entrap tetracycline antibiotic into silica nanospheres. Bactericidal efficacy of these structures was tested against bacteria that were susceptible and resistant to antibiotics. For nonresistant bacteria, our composite had bactericidal efficiency comparable to that of free-tetracycline. On the other hand, the synthesized composites were able to avoid bacterial growth of resistant bacteria while free-tetracycline has shown no significant bactericidal effect. Finally, we have investigated the cytotoxicity of these nanoparticles against mammalian cells to check any possible poisoning effect. It was found that these nanospheres are not apoptosis-inducers and only a reduction on the cell replication rate was seen when compared to the control without nanoparticles.
authors.affiliation: UFRGS - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, CEP 91501-970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Larissa Brentano
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Capeletti
authors.forename: Luciane França
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.forename: Kaliandra de Almeida
authors.initials: Kde A
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.forename: Jessica Fernanda Affonso
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.forename: Ângela
authors.initials: Â
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kobarg
authors.forename: João Henrique Zimnoch
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: dos Santos
authors.forename: Mateus Borba
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Cardoso
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D013752:Tetracycline / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; D013752:Tetracycline