Montmorillonite Modified with Fe3O4 NPs and Tannic Acid for Inhibition of S. aureus and MRSA Biofilm Formation

Abstract: Bacterial attachment and biofilm formation are significant challenges to public health, medicine, and the clinical industry. Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the most common cause of bacterial infections in healthcare. MRSA emerged as a result of the irresponsible usage of semi-synthetic antibiotics. Given MRSA's distinct response to conventional antibiotics, it becomes imperative to explore and characterize alternative antibacterial agents capable of tackling these resistant strains and their biofilms effectively. Therefore, in this study, we developed novel nanocomposite from nano clay based material montmorillonite. The montmorillonite was modified with Fe₃O₄ and tannic acid. The synthesized material thoroughly characterized via SEM, TEM, XPS and XRD analysis. The characterizations corroborated the successful synthesis. Moving on further, we applied this nanocomposite for antibacterial and inhibition of the biofilm formation studies against S. aureus and MRSA.  We studied CV staining, SEM morphology evaluation, biofilm formation gene expression analysis, CLSM study for live and dead cell assay, and finally anti-bacterial potential of the material. The results concluded that montmorillonite modified with Fe₃O₄ and tannic acid have significant biofilm formation inhibition. Thus, this novel nanocomposite can be applied in various desired applications, where, the inhibition of gram positive bacteria involved.

Keywords: Biofilm inhibition, montmorillonite, Fe₃O₄ NPs, tannic acid, MRSA