Zirconium oxide (ZrO2) nanoparticles from antibacterial activity to cytotoxicity: A next-generation of multifunctional nanoparticles

Health care costs of antibiotic resistance to the community have been astounding over the last decade and require urgent attention. This calls for new alternatives, such as metal oxide nanomaterials, to be considered at a more extended level. Metal oxide nanomaterials have been exerting a pull-on deal with its complete applications in biological and pharmaceutical fields of nanobiotechnology. The present study addresses the synthesis of nanoparticles of the zirconium oxide (ZrO2) by a process that can be quickly, economically and industrially used to combat deadly pathogens. The biological activity of synthesized zirconium oxide nanoparticles against bacterial strains has been studied by using agar well diffusion method. Besides, DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl) and a nitrous oxide-scavenging study, we have also studied the antioxidant ability of ZrO2 nanoparticles along with the anticancer activity. Importantly, our research demonstrated the antimicrobial activity of ZrO2 nanoparticles at different concentrations comparable to standard antibiotics against gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) and gram-negative bacteria (Klebsiella pneumonia), respectively. We believe that the synthesized ZrO2 nanoparticles demonstrated inhibitive activity against K. pneumoniae by the attraction of negatively charged K. pneumoniae cell wall against positively charged zirconium ions. Our findings suggest that synthesized multifunctional ZrO2 nanoparticles may be a successful candidate in health care systems.