CHEMICALLY FABRICATED SILVER NANOPARTICLES ENHANCES THE ACTIVITY OF ANTIBIOTICS AGAINST SELECTED HUMAN BACTERIAL PATHOGENS

Due to the outbreak of infectious diseases caused by different pathogenic bacteria and the development of antibiotic resistance, the pharmaceutical companies and the researchers are now searching for new unconventional antibacterial agents.  Nanotechnology represents a modern and innovative approach to develop new formulations based on metallic nanoparticles with antimicrobial properties. The potential bioactivity of chemically fabricated silver nanoparticles has been extensively studied. However, the antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles individually or in combination with different antibiotics has not been demonstrated. In the present investigations, the effect of silver nanoparticles on the antibacterial activity of different antibiotics was evaluated against selected human bacterial pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus epidermis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Bacillus cereus by disc diffusion method.In the presence of sub – inhibitory concentration of silver nanoparticles (100µL/disc), the antibacterial activities of all antibiotics are increased from 1 mm to 10 mm. The maximum fold increase was noticed for vancomycin against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (66.67%), Escherichia coli (62.50%), and Staphylococcus aureus (46%) followed by rifampicin against Bacillus cereus (66.67%) and kanamycin against Streptococcus epidermis (25%). These results signify that the silver nanoparticles showed potential antibacterial action of ß-lactams, glycopeptides, aminoglycosides, sulphonamides suggesting a possible utilization of silver nanocompounds in combination therapy against selected pathogens used in the experiment.