The Effect of Biosilver Nanoparticles on Different Bacterial Strains' Metabolism Reflected in Their VOCs Profiles

The use of silver nanoparticles has become in recent years a growing interest for many researchers, due to their bacteriostatic and bactericidal properties and synergetic effects when they are used together with antibiotics, for an increased efficiency and less adverse reactions in the treatment of bacterial infections. Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS), which is considered 'the golden standard' in chemical analysis, has proven to be a reliable instrument, perfectly suitable for clinical analysis. In this work, three bacterial strains, Escherichia coli (E. coli), Klebsiella oxytoca (K. oxytoca) and Staphylococcus saccharolyticus (S. saccharolyticus) were treated with biosilver nanoparticles (bioAgNPs). Headspace and GC-MS analysis was used for the detection of volatile metabolites. We observed decreased amounts of alcohols and carbonyl components (mainly ketones) in K. oxytoca and S. saccharolyticus bacteria incubated with silver. In contrast, biosilver nanoparticles added to E. coli increased the amount of VOCs, mainly hydrocarbons and alcohols. Our results have successfully demonstrated that the treatment of bacterial strains with bioAgNPs has a direct influence on their VOC profiles, by modifying the number of metabolic markers. Connected with this, the inhibition of bacteria is supposed, and consequently both the bacteriostatic and/or bactericidal effects of bioAgNPs on all three bacterial strains investigated were revealed.