There is a rapid increase in the number of health care associated infections (HAIs) due to multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacterial strains which have a worse prognosis being associated with significant morbidity and mortality, particularly in critically ill patients. The main problem with MDR strains is their limited treatment options, posing a major challenge for health care providers.The increasing utilization and immense studies of nanoparticles have brought new perspectives towards new antimicrobial material that could hinder the MDR bacteria pandemic currently faced. Particularly, metallic nanoparticles exhibit strong biocidal properties on different bacterial species, including MDR bacteria. Another important aspect of the antimicrobial properties of metallic nanoparticles is their potential to eradicate or inhibit microbial biofilm formation, which is an important virulence factor in many localized chronic infections.
This research aims to study the properties of metallic nanoparticlesMNPs (silver nanoparticles AgNps and copper nanoparticles CuNps) on the 2 most common nosocomial bacteria which are highly resistant to antibiotics including Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, to evaluate the growth inhibiting properties of MNPs on all bacterial isolates, to evaluate the biofilm inhibitory effect on biofilm forming bacterial isolates and the synergistic effect of these MNPs in combination with antibiotics on the antibiotic resistant isolates.