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Received Jul 20, 2017; Revised Nov 15, 2017; Accepted Dec 5, 2017
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
1. Introduction
Biofilms are a complex aggregation of bacteria that colonize and are found embedded, in self-secreted exopolysaccharide (EPS) matrix, which contains polysaccharides, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. Biofilms are more resistant to antibiotics as compared to their planktonic forms [1]. Apart from making the inhabitants more resistant, biofilms also increase retention of water and nutrients and absorption of nutrients, protect against host immune responses, and facilitate horizontal gene transfer. Biofilm inhabitants demonstrate multicellular behavior similar to higher multicellular organisms [2]. Implications of biofilm formation in medical field are well known, as it is associated with various diseases, infections caused by medical devices and nosocomial infections [3, 4]. Biofilms have also become problematic in the food industries, including brewing [5], seafood processing [6], dairy processing [7], poultry processing [8], and meat processing [9] leading to food safety issues by causing spoilage and contamination of food and food contact materials. There is an urgent need to find nontoxic, stable antibiofilm agents to improve public health and minimize economic losses.
Advent of nanotechnology has made nanomaterials as an effective alternative antimicrobial strategy to treat drug-resistant infections [10]. Particles with less than 100 nm in size are termed as nanoparticles (NPs) and their potent biocidal properties are attributed to their small size and high surface-to-volume ratio [11, 12]. In addition, stability of metal and metal oxides than organic compounds make them better antimicrobial agents [13, 14]. Among metal oxides, ZnO has attracted attention as antibacterial agent and ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) are known to exhibit broad-spectrum antibacterial activity and can reduce the attachment and viability of microbes [15, 16]. Further, it is well established that the nanoparticles, after entry into the host system interact with biomolecules like proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. Therefore, the effects of NPs are combined actions of nanoparticle-protein “corona” rather than nanoparticle alone [17]. Therefore, understanding of protein NPs interaction is very important for its future applications in medical and food industry [18, 19] However, minimal work has been carried out to synthesize nontoxic...