Antibiotic resistance is a major problem in the health sector globally. Many times bacteria form biofilms to resist the action of antibiotics. They do so by adhering together to form a matrix with the help of polymer which they produce. Such microbial films are responsible for failure of devices such as catheters and ventilators.<\/p>\n

Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT-Roorkee) have developed a new eco-friendly nanocomposite that promises to help fight the problem of such antibiotic resistance more effectively. The newly synthesized nanocomposite is capable of penetrating these biofilms and kill microbes.<\/p>\n

The new compound has been developed by combining silver particles with \u0138-Carrageenan, a polymer derived from red sea weed. The polymer is conventionally used in food products as a gelling, thickening and emulsifying agent.<\/p>\n

Silver nanoparticles are already known to have the ability to kill microbes but they are instable and have a short shelf life. Researchers used \u0138-Carrageenan to increase stability and shelf life of silver nanoparticles. They made a solution of \u0138-Carrageenan with silver nitrate and irradiated it in a microwave synthesizer. The nanocomposite thus obtained was found to be very stable and having a long shelf life, while being effective against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.<\/p>\n

$\"Researchers$ <\/a>

Researchers at\u00a0 IIT-Roorkee: Dr. Krishna Mohan Poluri (Standing) and Mukesh Kumar Meher<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cCapping of silver nanocomposites with \u0138-carrageenan imparts it stability and shelf life up to six 6months, which is one of the essential features of therapeutic formulations. The nanocomposite shows excellent antimicrobial activity against S.aureus<\/em> and P.aeruginosa<\/em> bacterial biofilms,\u201d researchers said. Ascarrageenan has been widely studied for its antifungal, anti-viral, anti-cancerous and immunomodulatory properties, the nanocomposite based on it can have huge potential in biomedical applications.<\/p>\n

The new nanocomposite also has potential applications in food packaging industry as microbial films spoil food products. \u201cWe are currently devising cost-effective anti-bacterial wound dressing materials and food packaging materials using the new nanocomposite. We plan to study its efficacy as potent anti-fungal and anti-viral agents too,\u201d said Dr.Krishna Mohan Poluri, a member of the research team, while speaking to India Science Wire<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The research results have been published in journal Carbohydrate Polymers<\/em>. Besides Dr. Krishna Mohan Poluri, the team included ApoorvaGoel, Mukesh Kumar Meher, Payal Gupta,Khushboo Gulati andVikasPruthi. (India Science Wire)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]By Dr. Aditi Jain Antibiotic resistance is a major problem in the health sector globally. Many times bacteria form biofilms to resist the action of antibiotics. They do so by adhering together to form a matrix with the help of polymer which they produce. Such microbial films are responsible for failure of devices such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":52871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6475],"tags":[61047,61048,8851,61049],"yst_prominent_words":[61037,61044,53576,8507,8505,61039,61041,61032,61043,61038,61035,61042,61033,61045,61046,8508,61034,61040,61036,61031],"ppma_author":[140543],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/d2r2ijn7njrktv.cloudfront.net\/apnlive\/uploads\/2018\/12\/03173013\/antibiotic_resistant_bacteria.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":140543,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"apnnewsdesk","display_name":"APN Live","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/478eacb893eda88aa6ed8d99b005bf58?s=96&r=g"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52866"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=52866"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=52866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}