Interaction of Bacteriocin-Capped Silver Nanoparticles with Food Pathogens and Their Antibacterial Effect

ABSTRACT

With the emergence of multiple-drug-resistant pathogens, the antibacterial property of silver in colloidal form has emerged as a potential candidate for combating infectious diseases. A combination of antibacterial agents along with nanosilver could prove to be more potent due to broadened antibacterial spectrum with possibly lower doses. In the present study, a facile single-step green method of synthesizing silver nanoparticles functionalized with an antibacterial peptide from a food-grade lactic acid bacterium is reported. The synthesized enterocin-coated silver nanoparticles showed broad-spectrum inhibition against a battery of food-borne pathogenic bacteria without any detectable toxicity to red blood cells. The present results evince that a new category of biocide based on silver nanoparticles coated with food-grade antibacterials can be developed using simple methods.

KEYWORDS:

• bacteriocin, silver nanoparticles, antibacterial activity, food borne pathogens, green synthesis

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) grant number C4-30032 from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), government of India, to NKN and RP. TKS is thankful to the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) for providing a National Doctoral Fellowship. We thank S.D. Sharma and B. Dutt, Institute Instrumentation Centre, IIT Roorkee, for their assistance in performing/analyzing SEM and AFM results.