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Figure 1. Candida spp.
Introduction
Introduction
Candida spp. can be found inhabiting the skin, mouth, vagina, and stool of people (Doctor Fungus. Accessed 2022).
This research paper tests how silver nanoparticles (silver NPs) can be used as antifungal agents against Candida spp. (Panacek, Ales, et al. 2009).
Taxonomy
Taxonomy
Kingdom: Fungi (Schoch, Conrad L.)
Phylum: Ascomycota
Subphylum: Ascomycotina
Class: Ascomycetes
Order: Saccharomycetales
Family: Saccharomycetaceae
Genius: Candida
Eukaryotic, Unicellular
Consumer
Reproduce via spores, and uses asci capsules for spore protection.
Figure 2. Candida spp. Candida spp. – Bing
Background Information
Background Information
Candida spp. has recently become one of the most common pathogens responsible for fungal infections often causing hospital-acquired sepsis (Panacek, Ales, et al. 2009).
These infections have an associated mortality rate of 40%. (Panacek, Ales, et al. 2009).
Currently most antifungal agents' administration often comes with complications such as toxicity from various substances and yeast antifungal therapy resistance (Panacek, Ales, et al. 2009).
This has caused for a need to find new antibacterial substances that are not only effective but also none toxic at effective levels.
Figure 3. Growth curves of C. albicans I (A), C. albicans II (B), C. parapsilosis (C) and C. tropicalis (D) inhibited by ionic silver.
Figure 4. Growth curves of C. albicans I (A), C. albicans II (B), C. parapsilosis (C) and C. tropicalis (D) inhibited by non-stabilized silver NPs.
Figure 5. Minimum inhibitory concentrations of the non-stabilized and stabilized silver NPs against the tested yeasts.
Data Analysis
Data Analysis
Scientists wanted to determine if silver nanoparticles (silver NPs) (Panacek, Ales, et al. 2009) could be used as antifungal agents to slow the growth of Candida spp. As well as to determine if the silver NPs are toxic at the levels needed to stop the growth (Panacek, Ales, et al. 2009).
For the synthesis of silver NPs, five were used for testing, those being, silver nitrate (99.9%, Safina), ammonia (p.a., 25% [w/w] aqueous solution, Lachema), sodium hydroxide (p.a., Lachema), and D- (þ)-maltose monohydrate (p.a., Riedel–de Hae¨n) were used (Panacek, Ales, et al. 2009).
Four Candida spp. were tested, C. albicans I (A), C. albicans II (B), C. parapsilosis (C) and C. tropicalis (D) (Panacek, Ales, et al. 2009).
The fungistatic activity of both non-stabilized and stabilized silver NPs was performed by the modified microdilution method which allowed for the determination of the minimum concentration of silver NPs that were effective (Panacek, Ales, et al. 2009).
They were able to totally inhibit the growth of fungi with the use of silver NPs (Panacek, Ales, et al. 2009).
Figure 6. TEM image of the prepared silver NPs with an average size of 25 nm.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The silver NPs are effective as an antifungal agent.
Evidenced by the minimum inhibitory concentrations of each tested species (figure 5) (Panacek, Ales, et al. 2009).
Further evidence shows that the silver NPs were not only effective but were also nontoxic at the concentration necessary to inhibit the growth of fungi (Panacek, Ales, et al. 2009).
These findings show that hospitals no longer have to use potentially toxic methods of antifungal substances and instead use a safe and effective substance.
References
References
Panacek, Ales, et al. Antifungal Activity of Silver Nanoparticles against Candida spp. Elsevier, 20 Aug. 2009
“Candida Species.” Doctor Fungus, https://drfungus.org/knowledge-base/candida-species/. Accessed 11 Sept. 2022.
Schoch, Conrad L., et al. “NCBI Taxonomy: A Comprehensive Update on Curation, Resources and Tools.” Database, vol. 2020, Jan. 2020, p. baaa062. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1093/database/baaa062.
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