Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering 2024; 29(5): 902-914  
Cell-free supernatant-assisted biogenic silver nanoparticles enhance the antibacterial efficacy of communicating bacterial pathogens
Raghavan Srimathi1 · Tesalonika Sondak1 · Kwang‑sun Kim1
1 Department of Chemistry, Chemistry Institute for Functional Materials, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, Korea
Correspondence to: ✉ Kwang‑sun Kim
kwangsun.kim@pusan.ac.kr
Received: March 26, 2024; Revised: June 10, 2024; Accepted: June 17, 2024; Published online: June 21, 2024.
© The Korean Society for Biotechnology and Bioengineering. All rights reserved.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The use of nanoparticles (NPs) as an alternative to the current generation of conventional antibiotics has exploded in the research community in recent years, as evidence of the superiority of NPs over antibiotics in the treatment of pathogens has been steadily presented. However, therapy with NPs may result in the removal of both multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens and commensal bacteria due to the broad-spectrum activity of NPs and the non-specificity of target bacteria. Therefore, the fabrication of MDR-pathogen-targeting NPs is necessary. In this study, biogenic silver nanoparticles (Bio-AgNPs) were synthesized using bacterial cell-free supernatant from three communicating gram-negative bacteria. The size, physical features, and morphology of the AgNPs were characterized by dynamic light scattering (an average size of 158–168 nm), X-ray diffraction (co-ordinate patterns), and transmission electron microscopy (spherical structure). The antibacterial activity of the Bio-AgNPs as minimum inhibitory concentration values was obtained between 0.8 and > 6.4 μg mL−1 for bacterial strains. Mechanistic studies of Bio-AgNPs have revealed that biofilm inhibition, protein leakage, hyperproduction of reactive oxygen species, and physical cell damage are plausible mechanisms underlying the activity of Bio-AgNPs against gram-negative pathogens. Overall, the Bio-AgNPs synthesized in this study may bolster the potential use of Bio-AgNPs as a stand-in for traditional antibiotics, and offer potential specificity against bacterial targets.
Keywords: Biogenic nanoparticle · Silver nanoparticle · Antimicrobial resistance · Biofilm · Reactive oxygen species

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