Pungent anti-infective nanocolloids manipulate growth, biofilm formation, and CTX-M-15 gene expression in pathogens causing vibriosis.

Vibriosis is one of the destructive bacterial diseases affecting marine fishes, crustaceans, and bivalves causing high mortality with severe economic losses worldwide. Antibiotics are widely used to manage the spread of various bacterial pathogens. Due to its intense usage, pathogens have developed drug resistance towards the antibiotics. Extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) produced by bacteria degrades the β-lactam ring of the antibiotics. This current study aims at the synthesis of pungent acrid silver nanocolloids (PANc) using extracts of three pungent acrids Piper nigrum, Piper longum, and Zingiber officinale which were characterized by using UV-Vis spectroscopy, FTIR, DLS, zeta potential, FE-SEM, and TEM. Antimicrobial assays were performed to evaluate the efficacy of PANc against vibriosis causing bacterial pathogens including Vibrio harveyi, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and Vibrio alginolyticus isolated from infected fish. PANc was found to be a cost-effective antimicrobial agent and successfully controlled the growth and biofilm formation in all Vibrio sp. and effectively suppressed the ESBL gene CTX-M-15 in antibiotic-resistant V. harveyi and V. alginolyticus PANc which can be formulated and can be used as an alternative to prevent the outbreak of disease caused by Vibrio sp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]