Improved antibacterial activity of sulfasalazine loaded fullerene derivative: computational and experimental studies

Recently, nanomaterials have found application in the biomedical field by providing new and efficient techniques in imaging, drug delivery, diagnosis and many other areas. The present study is a significant contribution in which a well-known zero-dimensional carbon nanomaterial, fullerene, has been explored as an efficient drug carrier. Specifically, water insoluble fullerene has been made water soluble through chemical functionalization using hydrogen peroxide to form polyhydroxylated fullerene, which is referred to as fullerenol. A well-known antibacterial drug, sulfasalazine (SSZ), has been loaded on to the surface of this fullerenol. The success of functionalization and drug loading has been confirmed by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman analysis. Moreover, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) imaging and elemental analysis have also been performed to evaluate the particle size and composition before and after drug loading. In addition, the effect of incorporating the nanomaterial has also been studied by comparing the antibacterial activity of drug loaded fullerenol with pure SSZ towards a number of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria by determining the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). The remarkable performance of SSZ loaded fullerenol show them as an efficient and promising nano drug-carrier.