Assessing the Microbicidal Efficacy of Natural Product Analogues Combined with Silver Nanoparticles against WHO Priority Resistant Bacteria

• Grant number: 23/16143-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: February 29, 2024
• End date: August 28, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: João Henrique Ghilardi Lago
• Grantee: Larissa Verena Figueiredo de Oliveira
• Supervisor: Myron Christodoulides
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas (CCNH). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Southampton, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/07971-8 - Preparation of analogues of natural products combined with silver nanoparticles and their application against resistant bacteria Mycobacterium abscessus, BP.PD

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance represents a serious global public health issue. Infections by multidrug-resistant bacteria are responsible for about 700,000 deaths annually and this number grows each year. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find alternative treatment methods for these microorganisms. Natural products have shown a great bactericidal potential and they already have been studied as alternatives to current drugs. These compounds can be used as found in natura or they can be used as prototypes for designing new molecules with improved pharmacological potential. In this sense, the natural product gibbilimbol, isolated Piper malacophyllum, can be considered a model for the design of analogues due to its biological potential and simple structure. However, natural products frequently display reduced bioavailability which greatly impairs their therapeutic use. So, an alternative to overcome this problem is the combination of these natural compounds with nanoparticles. Silver nanoparticles (AgNP) are excellent candidates to be used in combination with natural products due to their intrinsic microbicidal potential and they do not confer resistance to their use. Therefore, the main goal of this study is to evaluate the microbicidal capacity of gibbilimbol analogues-AgNP combinations against a wide range of bacteria, all from the World Health Organization's priority pathogen list, to explore alternative treatment approaches for these microorganisms.