In this research, bioactive nano-hybrids based on the nano-fibrillar chitosan-ZnO (NF-CS-ZnO) were synthesized to diminish the toxicity of ZnO-NPs. The successful formation of nano-hybrids was confirmed by FT-IR, UV–Vis, and FE-SEM analyses, showing a uniform spherical ZnO-NPs with an average diameter of 20–30 nm, homogeneously dispersed on NF-CS. The obtained results demonstrated a remarkable antibacterial activity of NF-CS-ZnO-0.6 nano-hybrid against E. coli and S. aureus and, interestingly, no cytotoxic on normal cells (even at a high concentration of 100 μg/mL). Furthermore, NF-CS hybridization efficiently decreased the up-regulation in Cas3, Cas9, and Il6 of inspected fishes compared to the ZnO-NPs. Histopathological examination revealed hepatocyte necrosis in the fish exposed to ZnO-NPs and hyperemia exposed to NF-CS-ZnO-0.6 nano-hybrid. Finally, NF-CS efficiently improved the bio-safety and bactericidal activity of ZnO-NPs; therefore, NF-CS-ZnO nano-hybrid is prominently recommended as a talented low-toxicity antibacterial agent replacement of conventional ZnO-NPs for use in different applications.

在这项研究中，合成了基于纳米纤维状壳聚糖-ZnO (NF-CS-ZnO) 的生物活性纳米杂化物，以降低 ZnO-NPs 的毒性。FT-IR、UV-Vis 和 FE-SEM 分析证实了纳米杂化物的成功形成，显示出平均直径为 20-30 nm 的均匀球形 ZnO-NPs，均匀分散在 NF-CS 上。所得结果表明，NF-CS-ZnO-0.6纳米杂化物对大肠杆菌和金黄色葡萄球菌具有显着的抗菌活性。而且，有趣的是，对正常细胞没有细胞毒性（即使在 100 μg/mL 的高浓度下）。此外，与 ZnO-NPs 相比，NF-CS 杂交有效地降低了受检鱼类 Cas3、Cas9 和 Il6 的上调。组织病理学检查显示暴露于 ZnO-NPs 的鱼肝细胞坏死和暴露于 NF-CS-ZnO-0.6 纳米混合物的充血。最后，NF-CS有效地提高了ZnO-NPs的生物安全性和杀菌活性；因此，NF-CS-ZnO 纳米复合物被广泛推荐作为传统 ZnO-NPs 的低毒抗菌剂替代品，用于不同的应用。