In the field of public health, treatment of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial infection is a great challenge. Herein, we provide a solution to this problem with the use of graphene oxide-silver (GO-Ag) nanocomposites as antibacterial agent. Following established protocols, silver nanoparticles were grown on graphene oxide sheets. Then, a series of in vitro studies were conducted to validate the antibacterial efficiency of the GO-Ag nanocomposites against clinical MDR Escherichia coli (E. coli) strains. GO-Ag nanocomposites showed the highest antibacterial efficiency among tested antimicrobials (graphene oxide, silver nanoparticles, GO-Ag), and synergetic antibacterial effect was observed in GO-Ag nanocomposites treated group. Treatment with 14.0 µg ml⁻¹ GO-Ag could greatly inhibit bacteria growth; remaining bacteria viabilities were 4.4% and 4.1% for MDR-1 and MDR-2 E. coli bacteria, respectively. In addition, with assistance of photothermal effect, effective sterilization could be achieved using GO-Ag nanocomposites as low as 7.0 µg ml⁻¹. Fluorescence imaging and morphology characterization uncovered that bacteria integrity was disrupted after GO-Ag nanocomposites treatment. Cytotoxicity results of GO-Ag using human-derived cell lines (HEK 293T, Hep G2) suggested more than 80% viability remained at 7.0 µg ml⁻¹. All the results proved that GO-Ag nanocomposites are efficient antibacterial agent against multidrug-resistant E. coli.

在公共卫生领域，耐多药（MDR）细菌感染的治疗是一个巨大的挑战。本文中，我们通过使用氧化石墨烯-银（GO-Ag）纳米复合材料作为抗菌剂来解决此问题。按照已建立的协议，将银纳米颗粒生长在氧化石墨烯片上。然后，进行了一系列体外研究，以验证GO-Ag纳米复合材料对临床MDR大肠杆菌（E. coli）菌株的抗菌效率。GO-Ag纳米复合材料在测试的抗菌剂（氧化石墨烯，银纳米颗粒，GO-Ag）中显示出最高的抗菌效率，并且在GO-Ag纳米复合材料处理组中观察到协同抗菌作用。用14.0 µg ml处理^-1 GO-Ag可以大大抑制细菌的生长；MDR-1和MDR-2大肠杆菌的其余细菌活力分别为4.4％和4.1％。另外，借助光热效应，使用低至7.0 µg ml ^-1的GO-Ag纳米复合材料可以实现有效的灭菌。荧光成像和形态表征发现，GO-Ag纳米复合材料处理后细菌完整性被破坏。使用人类来源的细胞系（HEK 293T，Hep G2）对GO-Ag的细胞毒性结果表明，在7.0 µg ml ^-1时仍有80％以上的活力。所有结果证明，GO-Ag纳米复合材料是对多药耐药大肠杆菌的有效抗菌剂。