Investigating the effect of particle size on the antibacterial activity of gold nanoparticles
Loading...
Date
2017
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
The increase of antibiotic- and/or multidrug-resistant bacteria has become a
major global challenge. Killing of antibiotic-resistant bacteria requires a high dose of
multiple, expensive drugs, which possess unfavourable side effects to the infected
individuals. As a result, treatment of antibiotic resistant-bacteria is costly and more time is
required to complete treatment. Therefore, novel substitutes are required to combat drug
resistant infections while preventing further microbial resistance. Spherical gold
Nanoparticles (sAuNPs) prepared using the citrate reduction method have been found to
exert antibacterial activity against a number of gram positive and gram negative bacteria.
However, there is still uncertainty regarding the role of size on the antibacterial activity of
sAuNPs. The effect of exposure time on the antibacterial activity of sAuNPs is also still not
well understood. In this study, it was hypothesized that AuNPs will show a size- and
concentration-dependentantibacterial activity against selected gram positive (+) and gram
negative (-) bacteria.
Description
Magister Scientiae - MSc (Biotechnology)