فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

Production of nanostructured antifungal agents through green synthesis has gained ground as the environmentally friendly approach to combat drug-resistant fungal pathogens. The nanoparticles (ZSC-AgNPs) were synthesized using aqueous leaf extract of Ziziphus spina-christi as reducing and stabilizing agent. Successful formation of Ag NPs was finally confirmed by the color change (pale yellow to dark brown), SEM, and XRD, which showed spherical-to-quasi-spherical shape with mean size 30-44 nm and face-centered cubic crystalline structure. The antifungal activity of ZSC-AgNPs was tested against clinical isolates of Malassezia spp (M. furfur, M. pachydermatis and M. globosa) by broth microdilution, agar well diffusion and qRT-PCR techniques. ZSC-AgNPs were much more active than the crude extract (mean MIC and MFC values 0.093 mg/mL and 0.187 mg/mL, respectively; ~134-fold improvement in potency). By comparison, the itraconazole and fluconazole MICs were 20 µg/mL and 32 µg/mL, respectively. Agar well diffusion test showed a concentration-dependent inhibition (mean zone of 17.56 mm) with ZSC-AgNps (2 mg/mL). In addition, qRT-PCR results demonstrated that the gene expression of lipase was decreased by fold 3.93 resulting in anti-virulence action rather than fungicidal property. These results indicate the potential of plant-fabricated silver nanostructures as potent and environmental friendly antifungal agents with two modes of action. This work will pave the way for the application of green nanotechnology in creating emerging antimicrobial materials for biomedical purposes.