Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 May 21;26(11):3067.
doi: 10.3390/molecules26113067.

Polyethylene Glycol Functionalized Graphene Oxide Nanoparticles Loaded with Nigella sativa Extract: A Smart Antibacterial Therapeutic Drug Delivery System

Mustafa A Jihad  1 , Farah T M Noori  1 , Majid S Jabir  2 , Salim Albukhaty  3 , Faizah A AlMalki  4 , Amal A Alyamani  5
Affiliations

Polyethylene Glycol Functionalized Graphene Oxide Nanoparticles Loaded with Nigella sativa Extract: A Smart Antibacterial Therapeutic Drug Delivery System

Mustafa A Jihad et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Flaky graphene oxide (GO) nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized using Hummer's method and then capped with polyethylene glycol (PEG) by an esterification reaction, then loaded with Nigella sativa (N. sativa) seed extract. Aiming to investigate their potential use as a smart drug delivery system against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, the spectral and structural characteristics of GO-PEG NPs were comprehensively analyzed by XRD, AFM, TEM, FTIR, and UV- Vis. XRD patterns revealed that GO-PEG had different crystalline structures and defects, as well as a higher interlayer spacing. AFM results showed GONPs with the main grain size of 24.41 nm, while GONPs-PEG revealed graphene oxide aggregation with the main grain size of 287.04 nm after loading N. sativa seed extract, which was verified by TEM examination. A strong OH bond appeared in FTIR spectra. Furthermore, UV- Vis absorbance peaks at (275, 284, 324, and 327) nm seemed to be correlated with GONPs, GO-PEG, N. sativa seed extract, and GO -PEG- N. sativa extract. The drug delivery system was observed to destroy the bacteria by permeating the bacterial nucleic acid and cytoplasmic membrane, resulting in the loss of cell wall integrity, nucleic acid damage, and increased cell-wall permeability.

Keywords: Nigella sativa; antibacterial activity; graphene oxide nanoparticles; polyethylene glycol; smart drug delivery system.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
XRD patterns of GONPs and GONPs–PEG.
Figure 2
Figure 2
AFM images of (A): GONPs, (B): GONPs-PEG, (C): N. sativa and (D): GONPs-PEG-N. sativa.
Figure 3
Figure 3
TEM images of (A): GONPs, (B): GONPs-PEG, (C): N. sativa and (D): GONPs-PEG-N. sativa.
Figure 4
Figure 4
TIR spectrum of GONPs and GONPs-PEG.
Figure 5
Figure 5
FTIR spectrum of N. sativa extract and GONPs-PEG-N. sativa.
Figure 6
Figure 6
UV-vis absorption spectrum of GONPs, GONPs-PEG, N. sativa, GONPs-PEG-N. sativa.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Anti-bacterial activity of GONPs, GONPs–PEG, and GONPs–PEG–N. sativa against S. aureus and E. coli. (1): control untreated bacterial strains. The inhibited zones of bacterial growth for both strains are illustrated when exposed to variety concentrations as follows; (2): 62.25 µg/mL, (3): 125 µg/mL, (4): 250 µg/mL, (5): 500 µg/mL. The data are shown as the mean ± SD. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001, and **** p < 0.0001.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Effect of GONPs, GONPs–PEG and GONPs–PEG–N. stiva in the growth rate of S. aureus and E. coli. cell (A), bacterial cells treated with GONPs (B), with GONPs–PEG (C), and with GONPs–PEG–N. sativa (D). The data are shown as the mean ± SD. ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001, and **** p < 0.0001.
Figure 9
Figure 9
SEM images visualized the effect of GONPs, GONPs–PEG, and GONPs–PEG–N. sstiva on treated S. aureus and E. coli. The bacterial strains showed changes in the cell membranes like damaged, blabbed, and clumped membranes. Non-treated bacterial cell (A), bacterial cells treated with GONPs (B), with GONPs–PEG (C), and with GONPs–PEG–N. sativa (D).
Figure 10
Figure 10
Fluorescence microscopic images of the green and red fluorescence stained S. aureus and E. coli. (A): non-treated bacterial strains. Bacterial cells treated with; (B) GONPs, (C): GONPs–PEG and (D): GONPs–PEG–N. sativa.
Figure 11
Figure 11
GONPs, GONPs–PEG and GONPs–PEG–N. sstiva inhibits invasion of bacterial strains in REF cells as indicated; (A): control REF cells infected with bacterial strains, (B): REF cells pre-treated with GONPs then infected with bacterial strains, (C): REF cells pre-treated with GONPs-PEG then infected with bacterial strains, (D): REF cells pre-treated with GONPs–PEG-N. sativa then infected with bacterial strains.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Illustrates the decrease interaction of bacterial strains with REF cells pre-treated with GONPs, GONPs–PEG, and GONPs–PEG–N. sativa. (A): control REF cells infected with bacterial strains, (B): REF cells pre-treated with GONPs then infected with bacterial strains, (C): REF cells pre-treated with GONPs-PEG then infected with bacterial strains, (D): REF cells pre-treated with GONPs –PEG-N. sativa then infected with bacterial strains. The values are shown as the mean ± SEM. ** p < 0.005, *** p < 0.001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Chung C., Kim Y.-K., Shin D., Ryoo S.-R., Hong B.H., Min D.-H. Biomedical applications of graphene and graphene oxide. Acc. Chem. Res. 2013;46:2211–2224. doi: 10.1021/ar300159f. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sun J., Deng Y., Li J., Wang G., He P., Tian S., Bu X., Di Z., Yang S., Ding G. A new graphene derivative: Hydroxylated graphene with excellent biocompatibility. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces. 2016;8:10226–10233. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6b02032. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Yang G., Zhu C., Du D., Zhu J., Lin Y. Graphene-like two-dimensional layered nanomaterials: Applications in biosensors and nanomedicine. Nanoscale. 2015;7:14217–14231. doi: 10.1039/C5NR03398E. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mohajeri M., Behnam B., Sahebkar A. Biomedical applications of carbon nanomaterials: Drug and gene delivery potentials. J. Cell. Physiol. 2019;234:298–319. doi: 10.1002/jcp.26899. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Jiang L., Su C., Ye S., Wu J., Zhu Z., Wen Y., Zhang R., Shao W. Synergistic antibacterial effect of tetracycline hydrochloride loaded functionalized graphene oxide nanostructures. Nanotechnology. 2018;29:505102. doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/aae424. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms