Carbon Dots Synthesized from Dried Mahongay Leaves Enhanced in vitro Antiobiotic Activity of Vancomycin against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcous aureus

Abstract

This study provides scientific research on carbon dots (CDs) synthesis through carbonization techniques utilizing dried Philippine Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) leaves. The main focus is on the ability of CDs to improve the efficacy of Vancomycin (VCM), a first-line medicine for treating Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, as well as the evaluation of its antibacterial properties. The synthesized CD filtrate from mahogany leaves was subjected to UV light and UV Vis spectroscopy, where the filtrate exhibited blue fluorescence under UV light and had a 2.5 AU absorbance reading under 375-425 nm wavelength under UV-Vis spectroscopy, validating the presence of CDs and success in CD synthesis. A simple centrifugation technique conjugated VCM and CDs, on which CD presence was also confirmed using UV-Vis spectroscopy. To evaluate antibacterial activity, pure CDs, bare, VCM, and VCM-conjugated CD treatments were tested against two gram-positive bacteria strains, Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA. Results yielded a significant result on the CD-VCM treatment tested against MRSA, which inferred that conjugating CDs with VCM enhances MRSA inhibition and showed no significant difference in S. aureus inhibition. An antibiotic release test was also conducted under two treatments– VCM and CD-VCM– which results statistically show have no significant difference. The CD-VCM treatment, however, achieved its peak concentration time at 4 hours, which was earlier than that of the VCM treatment, whose peak concentration was observed at 24 hours. Toxicity tests revealed that CDs are biocompatible, allowing researchers to conclude that conjugating CDs with antibiotics is not harmful and that CDs have potential as a drug carrier material in biomedical applications.