Antimicrobial Photodynamic Activity of Cationic Nanoparticles Decorated with Glycosylated Photosensitizers for Water Disinfection

The antimicrobial photodynamic approach has been demonstrated as an efficient and sustainable process for the eradication of microbial pathogens. In this work, silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles (NPs) were used as carriers of glycosylated porphyrins and phthalocyanines. Their subsequent cationization resulted in the production of stable antimicrobial photosensitizing materials, effective against E. coli. Suspensions of the photocatalysts in water present bimodal size distributions formed by big clusters and small NPs with hydrodynamic diameters between 8 and 38 nm. The presence of small NPs in the suspensions is related to an effective photodynamic inactivation (PDI) of E. coli cells. Glycosylation of the PS showed a positive effect on the PDI performance, which could be related to a higher accumulation of the photocatalyst over the bacterial cell membrane. In addition, these biocidal agents proved to be photostable and their photoactive performance decreased only between 23% and 28% upon 5 PDI cycles, mostly because of the loss of material between cycles, which makes them promising materials for water disinfection purposes.