Lactococcus lactis as a safe and inexpensive source of bioactive silver composites

This research develops a safe, inexpensive, and more accessible source for synthesis of silver nanoparticles. The bioactive silver composites synthesized by Lactococcus lactis 56 KY484989 (LCLB56-AgCs) were characterized by various physico-chemical techniques and investigated for their antimicrobial activity and cytotoxicity. The average amount of nanoparticles was 0.363 ± 0.09 mg from 50 mL of culture medium. The synthesis efficiency varied from 71 to 85%. Synthesized silver nanoparticles with spherical in shape were found to be of 5–50 nm and average diameter 19 ± 2 nm. Based on the shape of isotopic pattern of d-electrons metals, the signals of silver isotopes [(107)Ag](+) at m/z 106.905 and [(109)Ag](+) at m/z 108.910 were confirmed. Moreover, LCLB56-AgCs exerted an inhibitory effect against all tested bacterial strains (Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC10145, Proteus mirabilis ATCC25933, Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC49461, MSSA ATCC29213, and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC6338). More pronounced antimicrobial effect was noticed for 15 μg/well. Minimum inhibitory concentration required to inhibite the growth of 90% organism (MIC(90)) of synthetized LCLB56-AgCs was in a range of 3.125–12.5 μg/mL. The concentration at which the viability of the L929 cells was reduced to 50% was above 200 μg/mL for LCLB56-AgNCs. These results open up possibilities for many applications of bioactive silver composites (BioAgCs) synthesized by L. lactis 56 in food and pharmaceutical industries.