Antibacterial and Antibiofilm Activity of Mercaptophenol Functionalized-Gold Nanorods Against a Clinical Isolate of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract Gold nanorods (AuNRs) were synthesized by the seed-mediated wet chemical method using a binary surfactant system. AuNRs stabilized with polyethylene glycol, then functionalized 4-mercaptophenol (4-MPH) ligand surface exchange. The surface-functionalized (4-MPH-AuNRs) exhibited typical UV–vis spectrum of slightly shifted longitudinal peak. Furthermore, 4-MPH-AuNRs demonstrated similar Fourier-Transformed Infrared to 4-MPH and fading thiol band, which suggests successful functionalization through thiol-gold binding. antibacterial antibiofilm activities evaluated against clinical isolate Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). results indicate that exhibit bactericidal activity minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ~ 6.25 $$\upmu$$ μ g/mL planktonic suspension MRSA. resulted in 1.8–2.9 log-cycle reduction MRSA biofilm viable count over range 100–6.0 g/mL. bacterial uptake surface-modified was investigated inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging; reveal internalized into cells after 6 h (h) exposure. SEM imaging revealed significant accumulation at cell wall possible cellular internalization. Thus, can be considered potential agent, particularly strain biofilms.