Australian scientists supercharge vinegar's antibacterial effect with nanoparticles

Sydney, Sep 23 (IANS) Adding microscopic particles to vinegar enhances their effectiveness against dangerous bacterial infections and may help combat antibiotic resistance, new research led by researchers at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Flinders University in Australia, and the University of Bergen in Norway shows.

The research shows that antimicrobial nanoparticles made from carbon and cobalt can enhance the natural bacterial killing qualities of acetic acid, commonly known as vinegar, according to a statement released on Tuesday by the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.

The statement says that vinegar has been used as a disinfectant for centuries, but it is effective only against certain bacteria, and it does not kill the most dangerous types, reports Xinhua news agency.

The researchers found that the antimicrobial nanoparticles made from carbon and cobalt could kill several dangerous bacterial species, and their activity was enhanced when added to a weak vinegar solution. The findings have been published in the international journal ACS Nano.

As part of the research, the researchers added cobalt-containing carbon quantum dot nanoparticles to weak acetic acid to create a potent antimicrobial treatment. They used this mixture against several pathogenic species, including the drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Enterococcus faecalis.

The acidic environment from the vinegar made bacterial cells swell and take up the nanoparticle treatment, said molecular biologist Adam Truskewycz, who is the study's co-author.

"Once exposed, the nanoparticles appear to attack dangerous bacteria from both inside the bacterial cell and also on its surface, causing them to burst," Truskewycz said, adding the approach was non-toxic to human cells and was shown to remove bacterial infections from mice wounds without affecting healing.

The antibacterial boost in vinegar found in the research could potentially be an important contribution towards the ongoing battle against the rising antimicrobial resistance levels worldwide, with an estimated 4.5 million deaths associated with a direct infectious disease, according to the statement.

--IANS

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