Determination of the antagonistic efficacy of silver nanoparticles against two major strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is considered one of the most prominent diseases across the globe. This present study aims to inspect the impact of silver nanoparticles (AgNP) against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is the causative vector of TB. The efficacy of the AgNP was conducted based on the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the AgNPs through microplate Alamar blue assay. The preparation of the AgNPs involved chemical synthesis. The state and the size of the AgNPs were determined and confirmed by using ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) absorption spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy, and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). This study evaluated two strains: Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and Mycobacterium bovis. In addition, another multiple drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain was also considered in this study, along with the clinically obtained isolates from Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and Mycobacterium tuberculosis bovis. The synthesized nanoparticles were found to be tetrahedral in shape with an average particle size of 45±3 nanometre (nm). The obtained results indicated that the proliferation of all the strains (two reference strains and one MDR strain) was resisted by the action of the synthesized AgNPs. The MIC of the MDR strain was noted within the range of 2-12 µg/ml, whereas the MIC for the Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and Mycobacterium bovis was noted in the range of 2-14 and 3-30 µg/ml, respectively. Accordingly, this study proposed a novel approach to combat tuberculosis, which is considered a global threat to humankind, indicating the present study's novelty.