Potential Application of Origanum majorana Stabilized Silver Nanoparticles for Coating of Urinary Catheter

Urinary tract infections related to catheters are one of the most common urinary infections and can affect patient outcomes. Hence, coating urinary catheters is an important issue against several resistant bacterial pathogens that can form a resistant biofilm. This study examined the antibacterial and antibiofilm properties of the coated catheter with green silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) made from Origanum majorana.

Aloe Vera, Ocimum basilicum, Matricaria chamomilla, Foeniculum vulgare, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Origanum majorana, Urtica urens, Salvia Rosmarinus, and Salvia officinalis hydro-alcoholic extracts were prepared and tested for their antibacterial activities utilizing the agar well diffusion technique. Furthermore, O. majorana extract was tested against biofilm formation using a microtiter plate assay. UPLC-ESI-Q-TOF was used for the profiling and tentative identification of biological compounds in the O. majorana extract. O. majorana was used to prepare AgNPs-MARJ, which were characterized for their size, charge, and shape. Further, AgNPs-MARJ were used to coat two types of urinary catheters. The coated catheters were tested for their resistance to bacterial biofilm formation and compared with non-coated catheters.

Initial antimicrobial screening tests showed that O. majorana extracts presented a significant (p<0.05; ANOVA/Tukey) antibacterial activity against the studied species of bacteria compared to the other plant extracts. O. majorana extract showed MIC value of 35.0 mg/mL for E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae and displayed the highest antibiofilm activity at 100 mg/mL. LC-MS analysis tentatively identified the presence of quinic acid and flavonoid-based constituents like apigenin which contribute to the antibiofilm activity. AgNPs-MARJ were efficiently prepared with a size and charge of 111.5 nm and -19.66 mV, respectively. The coated urinary catheters showed a significant (p<0.05) decrease in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm formation compared to control non-coated catheters.

AgNPs-MARJ offer promising prospects for addressing biofilm-related challenges in urinary tract-related catheter infections.