AUTHOR=Zubair Mohammad , Husain Fohad Mabood , Al-Amri Marai , Hasan Imran , Hassan Iftekhar , Albalawi Thamer , Fatima Farha , Khan Altaf , Arshad Mohammed , Alam Pravej , Ahmad Naved , Alatawy Roba , Begum Shamina , Mir Rashid , Alshadfan Hisham , Ansari Abid Ali , Al-Anazi Abeer Bader Abdi Al-faqir 

TITLE=In vitro inhibition of biofilm and virulence factor production in azole-resistant strains of Candida albicans isolated from diabetic foot by Artemisia vulgaris stabilized tin (IV) oxide nanoparticles

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2023

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2023.1322778

DOI=10.3389/fcimb.2023.1322778

ISSN=2235-2988

ABSTRACT=Advent of nanotechnology has been instrumental in the development of new drugs with novel targets. Recently, metallic nanoparticles have emerged as potential candidates to combat the threat of drug-resistant infections.Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are one of the dreadful complications of diabetes mellitus due to the colonization of numerous drug-resistant pathogenic microbes leading to biofilm formation. Biofilms are difficult to treat due to limited penetration and non-specificity of drugs. Therefore, in the current investigation, SnO2 nanoparticles were biosynthesized using Artemisia vulgaris (AvTO-NPs) as a stabilizing agent and were characterized using ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Further, efficacy of AvTO-NPs against biofilms and virulence factors of drug-resistant Candida albicans strains isolated from DFUs was assessed. AvTO-NPs displayed minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) ranging from 1 mg/mL to 2 mg/mL against four strains of C. albicans. AvTO-NPs significantly inhibited biofilm formation by 54.8-87%; germ tube formation by 72-90%; cell surface hydrophobicity by 68.2-82.8% and exopolysaccharide (EPS) production by 69-86.3% in the test strains at respective 1/2xMIC. Biosynthesized NPs were effective in disrupting established mature biofilms of test strains significantly. Elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in the AvTO-NPs treated C. albicans could be the possible cause of cell death leading