Harnessing Bacterial Lipid Coatings on Gold Nanoparticles for Enhanced Cell Adhesion Applications

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health challenge responsible for millions of deaths annually. Hence, there is an urgent need for improved strategies to combat AMR. Nanoparticle (NP)-based drug delivery has shown promise for enhancing the efficacy of conventional antibiotic treatments. Moreover, lipid functionalization of NP surfaces can enhance drug loading, colloidal stability, and specificity. Cell membrane vesicles as the outer shell coating for NPs provokes a unique interaction between fabricated NPs and their respective parent bacteria. Despite numerous studies having investigated the use of bacterial extracellular vesicle coatings for drug delivery, to the best of our knowledge, the potential of isolated bacterial membrane lipids has not yet been explored. This study investigates how particle-cell adhesion changes when gold NPs (AuNPs) coated with bacterial membrane lipids are re-introduced to their original parent cells. Hence, bacterial lipid coated AuNPs (BLC-AuNPs) were constructed using AuNPs in conjunction with membrane lipids harvested from <i>Escherichia coli</i>. Compared with bare AuNPs, BLC-AuNPs showed significant increase in particle-cell adhesion upon re-exposure confirmed by confocal and electron microscopy. Lipid coating also improved particle distribution and surface coverage on bacterial cells. These findings suggest that bacterial membrane lipid coating provides an effective biomimetic strategy, enhancing drug deliveryto drug resistant pathogens.