Gold Nanoparticles and Graphene Oxide Flakes Synergistic Partaking in Cytosolic Bactericidal Augmentation: Role of ROS and NOX2 Activity

Osamah Al Rugaie; Majid Jabir; Rua Kadhim; Esraa Karsh; Ghassan M Sulaiman; Salman A A Mohammed; Riaz A Khan; Hamdoon A Mohammed

doi:10.3390/microorganisms9010101

Gold Nanoparticles and Graphene Oxide Flakes Synergistic Partaking in Cytosolic Bactericidal Augmentation: Role of ROS and NOX2 Activity

Microorganisms. 2021 Jan 5;9(1):101. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms9010101.

Authors

Osamah Al Rugaie¹, Majid Jabir², Rua Kadhim², Esraa Karsh², Ghassan M Sulaiman², Salman A A Mohammed³, Riaz A Khan⁴, Hamdoon A Mohammed^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Qassim University, Unaizah, P.O. Box 991, Al-Qassim 51911, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Applied Sciences, Division of Biotechnology, University of Technology, Baghdad 35010, Iraq.
³ Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, Qassim University, Qassim 51452, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, Qassim University, Qassim 51452, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Azhar University, Cairo 11371, Egypt.

Abstract

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and graphene oxide flakes (GOFs) exerted significantly (p < 0.0001) supportive roles on the phagocytosis bioactivity of the immune cells of phagocytic nature against the Gram-positive and Gram-negative human pathogenic bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Under experimental conditions, upon bacterial exposure, the combined GNPs and GOFs induced significant clearance of bacteria through phagosome maturation (p < 0.0001) from time-points of 6 to 30 min and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS, p < 0.0001) through the NADPH oxidase 2 (NOX2, p < 0.0001)-based feedback mechanism. The effects of the combined presence of GNPs and GOFs on phagocytosis (p < 0.0001) suggested a synergistic action underway, also achieved through elevated signal transduction activity in the bone-marrow-derived macrophages (BMDM, p < 0.0001). The current study demonstrated that GNPs' and GOFs' bactericidal assisting potentials could be considered an effective and alternative strategy for treating infections from both positive and negative bacterial strains.

Keywords: Escherichia coli; NOX2; Staphylococcus aureus; bactericidal; bone marrow-derived macrophages; gold nanoparticles; graphene oxide flakes; phagocytosis.