Fluorescent Carbon Dots-Antibiotic Nanocomposite Drug for the Eradication of Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria

Hospital-acquired infections are a growing concern for healthcare providers worldwide. Recently, attention has been devoted to new and emerging nanoparticle-based materials that can help antibiotics destroy multidrug-resistant bacteria. In this work, we conjugated two commercial antibiotics, ampicillin or chloramphenicol, with carbon dots (CDs), forming novel nanoantibiotic-CDs nanocomposites in order to enhance their activity against multidrug-resistant bacteria. These CDs-antibiotics composites were about 4-7 nm in size and were prepared by sonication of poly-(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-400 and the antibiotic drug without using a catalyst. The antibacterial activity of the composites was tested and showed a 4-fold effect in the case of chloramphenicol and at least a 2-fold effect in the case of ampicillin, as compared to the unbound drugs. This method may provide a simple strategy to bring back the use of antibiotics that are no longer clinically relevant due to the increase in antibiotic resistance.