Browsing by Author "Madiehe, Abram"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Antibacterial effects of biogenic silver nanoparticles synthesized using manihot esculenta (cassava) leaf aqueous extract
    (University of the Western Cape, 2023) Oliver, Toni Charlize Alexia; Madiehe, Abram
    Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global health concern that poses a serious threat to the health of humans, animals, and plants. The major public health problem of AMR is primarily caused by the incorrect use of antibiotics, which is further compounded by the reduced novel antibiotics discovery rate. AMR bacteria cause infections that are difficult to treat, resulting in prolonged hospital stays and increased healthcare costs. Moreover, AMR is associated with a high risk of morbidity and mortality. Current therapeutic strategies for AMR infections are often inefficacious, associated with side effects, and may further exacerbate AMR. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop alternative strategies to treat AMR bacterial infections.
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    Antimicrobial, anticancer and catalytic activities of green synthesized Avocado seed extract-gold nanoparticles
    (University of the Western Cape, 2019) Ngungeni, Yonela; Madiehe, Abram; Dube, Admire
    Nature through billions of years of trial and error has produced an immeasurable amount of natural systems like plants, birds and animals. The intelligence of nature is hidden in these natural systems and researchers are turning towards “Nature’s intelligence” to find inspiration and advance novelty in the development of nanomaterials. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have unique optical, electronic and physicochemical features which has gained them popularity and widespread exploitation in various applications. The conventional methods used for AuNPs synthesis employs toxic chemicals which makes these NPs unsafe for biomedical applications. Hence, there is a search for new, ‘green’ and more cost effective methods for AuNPs synthesis. Plant extracts are regarded as a highly desirable system for nanoparticle synthesis due to their tremendous capability to produce a wide range of phytochemicals that can act as reducing agents. The main goal of this study was to synthesize AuNPs in a cost effective manner without the use of toxic chemicals in the synthesis process. Avocado seeds which are an agricultural waste by-product were used for the biosynthesis of AuNPs. The study reports on the synthesis optimization, characterization and activities of the biogenic AuNPs. The avocado seed extract mediated - AuNPs (AvoSE-AuNPs) were optimized by varying reaction parameters and characterized by UV-visible, Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM), Zetasizer and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The formation of AvoSE-AuNPs had an absorption maximum at 534 nm. HRTEM and DLS confirmed that the NPs were polydispersed and present in different shapes. The presence of phytochemical constituents on the AvoSE-AuNPs were confirmed by FTIR. Their potential antibacterial activity was tested on bacterial strains known to exhibit resistance to a number of current antibiotics. The catalytic activity of AvoSE-AuNPs was also assessed as a means to contribute to the development of new methods aimed at alleviating organic pollutants such as nitrophenols in the environment. The AvoSE-AuNPs demonstrated excellent catalytic activity in the reduction of 4-NP by NaBH4 as shown by the rapid decrease in the nitrophenolate absorption band at 400 nm and the appearance of new absorption band at 298 nm, revealing the formation of the 4-aminophenol. Furthermore, the rate constants calculated demonstrated that the reaction occurs faster in the presence AvoSEAuNPs. The AvoSE-AuNPs showed low significant cytotoxicity. Cell cycle analysis was conducted to further investigate the apparent exhibited toxicity of the AvoSE-AuNPs. The results showed that in both cell lines treated with AvoSE-AuNPs and AvoSE there was a ii | P a g e disruption in the regulation of cell cycle. Cell cycle analysis helped improve understanding of the low cytotoxicity observed by the MTT assay results. The results presented in this study clearly demonstrate the feasibility of using AvoSE for the synthesis of AuNPs. This study demonstrated that AvoSE mediated AuNPs synthesis is a greener alternative as it abides by the green chemistry principles. Furthermore, the study outcomes contributed to minimizing environmental pollution by finding use for agricultural waste and thus ultimately adding value to the field.
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    Evaluation of the anticancer and molecular effects of green synthesized silver nanoparticles
    (University of the Western Cape, 2023) Simon, Sohail; Madiehe, Abram
    Globally, cancer is considered the second leading cause of death with a staggering tally of 10 million deaths. Breast, lung, colon, rectum and prostate cancers are amongst the most commonly diagnosed cancers. The current cancer treatment strategies such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery; are accompanied with a long list of side effects. Nanotechnology has shown potential in improving biocompatibility of the chemotherapeutic drugs, and also provides a novel approach for the development of novel cancer treatment strategies through the application of the widely investigated nano-scaled materials known as nanoparticles (NPs). These NPs have been used as drug delivery systems and have, therefore, made a mark in the fight against cancer. Furthermore, their anti-cancer properties make them prospective anti-cancer agent.
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    Green synthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) from Bulbine frutescens leaf extract and their antimicrobial effects
    (University of the Western Cape, 2020) Lucas, Shakeela; Madiehe, Abram; Meyer, Mervin
    Combating antimicrobial resistant infections caused by nosocomial pathogens poses a major public health problem globally. The widespread use of broad-spectrum antibiotics for the treatment of wound infections has led to the appearance of multidrug-resistant (MDR) microbes which further exacerbates the growth of microbes amongst patients. It may result in prolonged debility of the patient and an increase in healthcare costs due to prolonged hospital stays and expensive treatment regimens to avoid patient-patient transmission. Therefore, it is imperative that alternative sources of treatment to antimicrobial use in wound infections needs to be developed in order to inhibit or kill resistant microbes and to provide point of care medical treatment to the less fortunate at an affordable cost.
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    Molecular modeling and simulation studies of selex-derived high-affinity dna aptamers to the ebola virus nucleoprotein
    (Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2024) Martin, Darius Riziki; Madiehe, Abram; Meyer, Mervin
    Ebola viral disease (EVD) is a highly infectious and potentially fatal illness with a case fatality rate ranging from 25% to 90%. To effectively control its spread, there is a need for rapid, reliable and lowcost point-of-care (P OC) diagnostic tests. While various EVD diagnostic tests exist, few are P OC tests, and many are not cost-effective. The use of antibodies in these tests has limitations, prompting the exploration of aptamers as potential alternatives. Various proteins from the Ebola virus (EBOV) proteome, including EBOV nucleoprotein (NP), are considered viable targets for diagnostic assays. A previous study identified three aptamers (Apt1. Apt2 and Apt3) with high affinity for EBOV NP using systemic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX). This study aimed to employ in silico methods, such as Phyre2, RNAfold, RNAComposer, HADDOCK and GROMACS, to model the structures of EBOV NP and the aptamers, and to investigate their binding. The in silico analysis revealed successful binding of all the three aptamers to EBOV NP, with a suggested ranking of Apt1 > Apt2 > Apt3 based on binding affinity. Microscale thermophoresis (MST) analysis confirmed the binding, providing dissociation constants of 25 ± 2.84, 56 ± 2.76 and 140 ±3.69 nM for Apt1, Apt2 and Apt3, respectively. The study shows that the findings of the in silico analysis was in agreement with the MST analysis. Inclusion of these in silico approaches in diagnostic assay development can expedite the selection of candidate aptamers, potentially overcoming challenges associated with aptamer application in diagnostics.
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    Screening of plant-mediated nanoparticles for antifungal activity
    (University of the Western Cape, 2020) de Beer, Irving; Klein, Ashwil; Meyer, Mervin; Madiehe, Abram
    Nanotechnology is spreading rapidly across the world as an extremely powerful technology. Nanoscience and nanotechnology are innovative scientific advancements that have been introduced only in this century. Nanotechnology has developed as the scientific advancement to grow and transform the entire agri-food area, with the potential to elevate global food production, in addition to the nutritional value, quality, and safety of food and food products. It has gained recognition due to its variability in shape, size, and dimension and how it correlates to its possibilities. One of those functions is nanoparticles’ (NPs) ability to have antimicrobial activity, more specifically its antifungal activity. One particular pathway of synthesising NPs is through phytonanotechnology which is the use of biomaterial to synthesis the NPs.
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    Synthesis, optical and morphological characterization of pbse quantum dots for diagnostic studies: a model study
    (University of the Western Cape, 2013) Ouma, Linda Achiengꞌ; Onani, Martin; Madiehe, Abram
    In this study PbSe quantum dots (QDs) were successfully synthesized via the organometallic and aqueous routes. Optical characterization was carried out using photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, structural and morphological characterization were carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was used to determine the composition of the QDs. All the synthesized QDs were found to have emissions within the near-infrared region of the spectrum (≥1000 nm) with most of them being less than 5 nm in size. The aqueous synthesized QDs had a perfect Gaussian emission spectrum with a FWHM of ~23 nm indicating pure band gap emission and narrow size distribution respectively. The QDs were determined to have a cubic rock-salt crystal structure consistent with bulk PbSe. The aqueous synthesized QDs were however not stable in solution with the QDs precipitating after approximately 48 h. The organometallic synthesized QDs were transferred into the aqueous phase by exchanging the surface oleic acid ligands with 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid ligands. The ligand exchanged QDs were however stable in solution for over two weeks. The effects of reaction parameters on the optical and structural properties of the organometallic synthesized QDs were investigated by varying the reaction time, temperature, ligand purity, lead and selenium sources. It was observed that larger QDs were formed with longer reaction times, with reactions proceeding faster at higher reaction temperatures than at lower temperatures. Varying the ligand purity was found to have minimal effects on the properties of the synthesized QDs. The lead and selenium sources contributed largely to the properties of the QDs with lead oxide producing spherical QDs which were smaller compared to the cubic QDs produced from lead acetate. TBPSe was seen to produce smaller QDs as compared to TOPSe. The cytotoxity of the synthesized QDs was determined following the WST-1 cell viability assay with the QDs being found to be non-toxic at all the tested concentrations