AUTHOR=Novickij Vitalij , Stanevičienė Ramunė , Vepštaitė-Monstavičė Iglė , Gruškienė Rūta , Krivorotova Tatjana , Sereikaitė Jolanta , Novickij Jurij , Servienė Elena 

TITLE=Overcoming Antimicrobial Resistance in Bacteria Using Bioactive Magnetic Nanoparticles and Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2017

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.02678

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2017.02678

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=Nisin is a known bacteriocin, which exhibits a wide spectrum of antimicrobial activity, while commonly being inefficient against Gram-negative bacteria. In this work, we present a proof of concept of novel antimicrobial methodology using targeted magnetic nisin-loaded nano-carriers (iron oxide nanoparticles (11–13 nm) capped with citric, ascorbic and gallic acids), which are activated by high pulsed electric and electromagnetic fields allowing to overcome the nisin-resistance of bacteria. 
As a cell model the Gram-positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Gram-negative Escherichia coli were used. We have applied 10 and 30 kVcm-1 electric field pulses (100 µs x 8) separately and in combination with two pulsed magnetic field protocols: 1) high dB/dt 3.3 T x 50 and 2) 10 mT, 100 kHz, 2 min protocol to induce additional permeabilization and local magnetic hyperthermia. We have shown that the high dB/dt pulsed magnetic fields increase the antimicrobial efficiency of nisin nanoparticles similar to electroporation or magnetic hyperthermia methods and a synergistic treatment is also possible. The results of our work are promising for the development of new methods for treatment of the drug-resistant foodborne pathogens to minimize the risks of invasive infections.