GREEN-SYNTHESIZED NICKEL–CURCUMIN NANOPARTICLE AS A MULTI-TARGET ANTIFUNGAL AGENT AGAINST MULTIDRUGRESISTANT CANDIDA Albicans

This study explored a green-synthesized nickel–curcuminnanocomposite as a potential antifungal agent againstmultidrug-resistant fungi Candida albicans isolated from anoral candidiasis patient sample. As a phytochemical, Curcuminwas chosen and extracted from Curcuma longa, optimized forsolvent efficiency, and was employed to synthesize nickelnanoparticles under alkaline conditions. Following that,antifungal susceptibility testing, an EMSA-based DNA damageassay, viscosity measurements, SDS-PAGE profiling, andmolecular docking were performed to evaluate thenanocomposite. The isolate exhibited diminished susceptibilityto standard antifungals, thereby validating an MDR phenotype.The nickel–curcumin composite nanoparticles exhibitedenhanced antifungal efficacy compared to curcumin alone,induced DNA fragmentation which was elevated andrevalidated with ctDNA for viscosity indicative of nucleic acid interaction along withmodified stress-related protein expression in treated fungal cells. Molecular docking studiesconfirmed favourable interactions of nanocomposite with C. albicans DNA, Als3, and Hsp90,that indicates a multi-target mechanism in action. In general, the results showed that thenickel–curcumin nanocomposite can perform antifungal properties by causing genomicdisruption, protein stress, which can interfere with virulence-related targets. This makes it aunique choice for more preclinical research on drug-resistant candidiasis.