Co-Treatment of Copper Oxide Nanoparticle and Carbofuran Enhances Cardiotoxicity in Zebrafish Embryos

The use of chemicals to boost food production increases as human consumption also increases. The insectidal, nematicidal and acaricidal chemical carbofuran (CAF), is among the highly toxic carbamate pesticide used today. Alongside, copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO) are also used as pesticides due to their broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. The overuse of these pesticides may lead to leaching into the aquatic environments and could potentially cause adverse effects to aquatic animals. The aim of this study is to assess the effects of carbofuran and copper oxide nanoparticles into the cardiovascular system of zebrafish and unveil the mechanism behind them. We found that a combination of copper oxide nanoparticle and carbofuran increases cardiac edema in zebrafish larvae and disturbs cardiac rhythm of zebrafish. Furthermore, molecular docking data show that carbofuran inhibits acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity in silico, thus leading to impair cardiac rhythms. Overall, our data suggest that copper oxide nanoparticle and carbofuran combinations work synergistically to enhance toxicity on the cardiovascular performance of zebrafish larvae.

Biological synthesis and characterization of copper oxide nanoparticles using aqueous Psidium guajava leave extract and study of antibacterial activity of the copper oxide nanoparticles on Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus

Nanobiotechnogy has been developed to synthesized copper oxide nanoparticle. This was carried out biologically using leaf extract of Psidium guajava as a reducing and stabilizing agent. Optical property showed a color change from dark brown to gold- yellow after the addition of leaf extract. The possible functional group in the plant extract responsible for the reduction of CuONps was identified as belonging to alkyl halide group by FT-IR analysis. UV- visible spectra of copper oxide nanoparticle showed a surface plasmon resonance peak at 390nm. The biologically synthesized copper nanoparticles were tested for antibacterial activity against two human pathogens viz, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Biosynthesized copper nanoparticle showed clear zone of inhibition or better activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.