Engineered Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite Capable of Preventing the Evolution of Antimicrobial Resistance

Huizhen Zheng, Zhaoxia Ji, Kevin R. Roy, Meng Gao, Yanxia Pan, Xiaoming Cai, Liming Wang, Wei Li, Chong Hyun Chang, Chitrada Kaweeteerawat, Chunying Chen, Tian Xia, Yuliang Zhao, Ruibin Li

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

97 Scopus citations

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is spreading worldwide and keeps evolving to adapt to antibiotics, causing increasing threats in clinics, which necessitates the exploration of antimicrobial agents for not only killing of resistant cells but also prevention of AMR progression. However, so far, there has been no effective approach. Herein, we designed lanthanum hydroxide and graphene oxide nanocomposites (La@GO) to confer a synergistic bactericidal effect in all tested resistant strains. More importantly, long-term exposure of E. coli (AMR) to subminimum inhibitory concentrations of La@GO does not trigger detectable secondary resistance, while conventional antibiotics and silver nanoparticles lead to a 16-to 64-fold increase in tolerance. The inability of E. coli to evolve resistance to La@GO is likely due to a distinctive extracellular multitarget invasion killing mechanism involving lipid dephosphorylation, lipid peroxidation, and peptidoglycan disruption. Overall, our results highlight La@GO nanocomposites as a promising solution to combating resistant bacteria without inducing the evolution of AMR.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)11488-11499
Number of pages12
JournalACS Nano
Volume13
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 22 2019

Keywords

  • antimicrobial resistance
  • evolution
  • graphene oxide
  • lanthanum hydroxide
  • nanoparticles

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science
  • General Engineering
  • General Physics and Astronomy

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