At present, there is an urgent need in medicine and industry to develop new approaches to eliminate bacterial biofilms. Considering the low efficiency of classical approaches to biofilm eradication and the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, the introduction of nanomaterials may be a promising solution. Outstanding antimicrobial properties have been demonstrated by nanoparticles (NPs) of metal oxides and their nanocomposites. The review presents a comparative analysis of antibiofilm properties of various metal oxide NPs (primarily, CuO, Fe₃O₄, TiO₂, ZnO, MgO, and Al₂O₃ NPs) and nanocomposites, as well as mechanisms of their effect on plankton bacteria cells and biofilms. The potential mutagenicity of metal oxide NPs and safety problems of their wide application are also discussed.

Rapid detection of bacterial contamination is an essential task in numerous medical and technical processes and one of the most rapidly developing areas of nano-based analytics. Here, we present a simple-to-use and special-equipment-free test-system for bacteria detection based on magnetite nanoparticle arrays. The system is based on peroxide oxidation of chromogenic substrate catalyzed by magnetite nanoparticles, and the process undergoes computer-aided visual analysis. The nanoparticles used had a pristine surface free of adsorbed molecules and demonstrated high catalytic activities up to 6585 U/mg. The catalytic process showed the Michaelis–Menten kinetic with K_m valued 1.22 mmol/L and V_max of 4.39 µmol/s. The nanoparticles synthesized were used for the creation of inkjet printing inks and the design of sensor arrays by soft lithography. The printed sensors require no special equipment for data reading and showed a linear response for the detection of model bacteria in the range of 10⁴–10⁸ colony-forming units (CFU) per milliliter with the detection limit of 3.2 × 10³ CFU/mL.

Organically-coated nanomaterials are intensively studied and find numerous applications in a wide range of areas from optics to biomedicine. One of the recent trends in material science is the application of bio-mimetic polydopamine coatings that can be produced on a variety of substrates in a cost-efficient way under mild conditions. Such coatings not only modify the biocompatibility of the material but also add functional amino groups to the surface that can be further modified by classic conjugation techniques. Here we show an alternative strategy for substrates modification using dopamine conjugates instead of native dopamine. Compared to the classic scheme, the proposed strategy allows separation of the “organic” and “colloidal” stages, and simplified identification and purification steps. Modification with pre-modified dopamine made it possible to achieve high loading capacities with active components up to 10.5% wt. A series of organo-inorganic hybrids were synthesized and their bioactivity was analyzed.

The rapid and accurate diagnosis of meningitis is critical for preventing severe complications and fatalities. This study addresses the need for accessible diagnostics in the absence of specialized equipment by developing a novel diagnostic assay. The assay utilizes dual-priming isothermal amplification (DAMP) with unique internal primers to significantly reduce non-specificity. For fluorescence detection, the dye was selected among Brilliant Green, Thioflavin T, and dsGreen. Brilliant Green is preferred for this assay due to its availability, high fluorescence level, and optimal sample-to-background (S/B) ratio. The assay was developed for the detection of the primary causative agents of meningitis (Haemophilus influenzae, Neisseria meningitidis, and Streptococcus pneumoniae), and tested on clinical samples. The developed method demonstrated high specificity, no false positives, sensitivity comparable to that of loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), and a high S/B ratio. This versatile assay can be utilized as a standalone test or an integrated assay into point-of-care systems for rapid and reliable pathogen detection.

Organically-coated nanomaterials are intensively studied and find numerous applications in a wide range of areas ranging from optics to biomedicine. One of the recent trends in material science is the application of bio-mimetic polydopamine coatings that can be produced on a variety of substrates in a cost-efficient way under mild conditions. Such coatings not only modify the biocompatibility of the material but also add functional amino groups to the surface that can be further modified by classic conjugation techniques. Here we show an alternative strategy of substrates modification using not dopamine but dopamine conjugates. Compared to the classic scheme the proposed strategy allows for separation of the "organic" and "colloidal" stages and simplifies identification and purification steps. Modification with pre-modified dopamine allowed to achieve high active components loading up to 10.5% wt. A series of organo-inorganic hybrids were synthesized and their bioactivity was analyzed.