Hydroxyl capped silver-gold alloy nanoparticles: characterization and their combination effect with different antibiotics against Staphylococcus aureus

Metal nanoparticles (NPs) offer a wide variety of potential applications in pharmaceutical sciences due to the unique advances in nanotechnology research. In this work, bimetal Ag-Au alloy NPs were prepared and their combinations with other antibiotics were tested against Staphylococcus aureus. Firstly, Ag-Au alloy NPs with Au/Ag molar ratio of 1:1 was fabricated and was purified by agarose gel electrophoresis system. The morphology and size of the purified NPs were confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. Chemical composition and surface chemistry of these NPs were studied with atomic absorption spectophotometry and Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy, respectively. The size of purified Ag-Au alloy NPs was less than 200 nm. Also the presence of organic compounds with a hydroxyl residue was detected on the surface of these purified NPs. In next step the effect of purified Ag-Au alloy NPs on the antibacterial activity of different antibiotics was evaluated at sub-inhibitory content (5 μg/disk) using disk diffusion method against S. aureus. Ag NPs and Au NPs were also tested at same content (5 μg) using mentioned method. The most enhancing effect of Ag-Au alloy NPs was observed for penicillin G and piperacillin. No enhancing effects on the antibacterial activity of different antibiotics were observed at 5 μg/disk for the mono-metal nanoparticles (Ag NPs and Au NPs) against S. aureus. These results signify that the Ag-Au alloy NPs potentiates the antimicrobial action of certain antibiotics suggesting a possible utilization of this nano material in combination therapy against resistant S. aureus.