Green synthesis, characterization, molecular simulation, and in vitro biomedical application of magnesium oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

Microbial infections represent a major hazard to global public health, resulting in extensive morbidity and mortality across the globe. As a result, in the past 10 years, nanoparticles have drawn a lot of interest in their potential to manage microbial diseases. One of the few studies that has used a green and environmentally acceptable approach of producing magnesium oxide nanoparticles (MgONPs) was employed via using an extract from watermelon peels. UV–visible, FTIR, XRD, and TEM were used to comprehensively characterize the biosynthesized MgONPs. The synthetic MgONPs have a polycrystalline form with a median particle size of 6–17 nm, according on the characterization of the material. According to the antimicrobial results, MgONPs showed notable antimicrobial properties toward B. subtitles, S. aureus, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, and C. albicans, with an inhibition zone measuring 18.2 ± 0.36, 23.7 ± 0.4, 15.4 ± 0.25, 17.6 ± 0.56, and 16.3 ± 0.32 mm respectively. While the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) varied from 50 to 200 µg/mL. MgONPs have successfully demonstrated antibiofilm potential versus MRSA. A molecular docking simulation was carried out to obtain a better understanding of the potential mechanism of MgO-NPs against the S. aureus strain. The results imply that the activity may be attributed to the dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) with a varying degree, and the predominant interaction observed is the hydrophobic interaction with the residues’ amino acids in the active site of the pocket in S. aureus. Furthermore, the DPPH technique revealed that MgONPs had considerable antioxidant activity, with an IC50 of 223 µg/mL. Additionally, at a dosage of 62.5 µg/mL, MgONPs exhibit possible antiviral efficacy against HAV and HSV1, with proportions of 84.7 and 49.7%, respectively. Finally, the watermelon peel extract biosynthesized MgONPs exhibit antimicrobial, antibiofilm, antioxidant, and antiviral properties that show promise to be utilized in the biomedical field.