Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2024, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (6): 1134-1140.doi: 10.1007/s40242-024-4036-2

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Differential Antibacterial Effects of Chiral Co3O4

SUN Jia1,2, SONG Shanshan1,2, GUO Caoyu1,2, LIU Liqiang1,2, SUN Maozhong1,2, KUANG Hua1,2, XU Chuanlai1,2, GUO Lingling1,2   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, P. R. China;
    2. International Joint Research Laboratory for Biointerface and Biodetection, School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, P. R. China
  • Received:2024-02-22 Online:2024-12-01 Published:2024-10-26
  • Contact: GUO Lingling,gling0329@jiangnan.edu.cn E-mail:gling0329@jiangnan.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2022YFF1102600).

Abstract: With the global spread of antimicrobial resistance, it is imperative to satisfy the need to develop novel antibacterial agents. Here, we synthesized chiral Co3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) with obvious bactericidal effects. It was found that the circular dichroism (CD) spectra of L-Co3O4 NPs and D-Co3O4 NPs exhibited perfect mirror image inversion. Specifically, the survival rate of primary uterine fibroblast (PCS) cells reached above 90% by co-culturing with chiral Co3O4 NPs. Besides, the chiral Co3O4 NPs showed obvious killing ability on Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli O157:H7) bacteria both in vitro and in vivo. Particularly, D-Co3O4 NPs showed better antibacterial activity. Mechanistic studies confirmed that the level of reactive oxygen species level generated by D-Co3O4 NPs was higher than that of L-Co3O4 NPs. Overall, the synthesized D-Co3O4 NPs have the potential to become a kind of novel antibacterial nanomaterials.

Key words: Chiral material, Antibacterial property, Co3O4, Antimicrobial resistance