Publication Date

7-2022

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Ali Oguz Er (chair), Simran Banga, Ivan Novikov

Degree Program

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Degree Type

Master of Science

Abstract

Antibiotics resistance is considered as one of the greatest public health challenges of our time. In this work, we have synthesized silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) using pulsed liquid ablation in different medium of growth and later combined with methylene blue (MB) to evaluate its potential as an effective photodynamic therapy agent. Ag NPs were synthesized by pulsed laser ablation technique in Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), citrate, and Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The Ag NPs were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Visible (UV-Vis), and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. Next, Ag NPs were coupled with MB and used to deactivate the Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli (E. coli), and Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). MB and Ag NPs mixture exhibited a synergistic activity and was more effective compared to separate use of MB and Ag NPs. Ag NPs in PVP was shown to be the most effective media for bacterial deactivation. Given the concern for Ag NPs’ cytotoxicity for adverse health effect, cytotoxicity measurement in HEK 293T cell lines were performed. Our results shows that Ag NPs do not exhibit significant cytotoxicity up to 50 μg/ml in each solution and MB/Ag NPs combination has potential to be used in PDT where standard photosensitizers have limitations.

Disciplines

Biology | Chemistry | Physics

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