Silver nanoparticle-enhanced hybrid photosensitizer for photoinactivation of multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

Abstract

In recent years, multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become one of the main bacteria associated with serious diseases in both hospital and the community. Herein we report that a type of hybrid photosensitizers consisting of silver nanoparticles and photosensitizing molecules display outstanding photodynamic inactivation capability against MRSA, with an enhanced killing efficacy of up to ∼6 orders of magnitude under the experimental conditions. The results support that such hybrid photosensitizers can be used for photodynamic inactivation of MRSA without involving antibiotics.