Impact of Biogenic and Chemogenic Selenium Nanoparticles on Model Eukaryotic Lipid Membranes

Microbial nanotechnologyis an expanding research area devotedto producing biogenic metal and metalloid nanomaterials (NMs) usingmicroorganisms. Often, biogenic NMs are explored as antimicrobial,anticancer, or antioxidant agents. Yet, most studies focus on theirapplications rather than the underlying mechanism of action or toxicity.Here, we evaluate the toxicity of our well-characterized biogenicselenium nanoparticles (bSeNPs) produced by the Stenotrophomonasmaltophilia strain SeITE02 against the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae comparing it with chemogenicSeNPs (cSeNPs). Knowing from previous studies that the biogenic extractcontained bSeNPs in an organic material (OM) and supported here byFourier transform infrared spectroscopy, we removed and incubatedit with cSeNPs (cSeNPs_OM) to assess its influence on the toxicityof these formulations. Specifically, we focused on the first stagesof the eukaryotic cell exposure to these samples i.e., theirinteraction with the cell lipid membrane, which was mimicked by preparingvesicles from yeast polar lipid extract or phosphatidylcholine lipids.Fluidity changes derived from biogenic and chemogenic samples revealedthat the bSeNP extract mediated the overall rigidification of lipidvesicles, while cSeNPs showed negligible effects. The OM and cSeNPs_OMinduced similar modifications to the bSeNP extract, reiterating theneed to consider the OM influence on the physical-chemicaland biological properties of bSeNP extracts.

Automated summary

Microbial nanotechnology is a growing research area focused on producing biogenic metal and metalloid nanomaterials using microorganisms. This study evaluated the toxicity of well-characterized biogenic selenium nanoparticles (bSeNPs) produced by the Stenotrophomonasmaltophilia strain SeITE02 on the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, comparing it to chemogenic selenium nanoparticles (cSeNPs). The results showed that the biogenic extract mediated changes in the fluidity of lipid vesicles, while the chemogenic nanoparticles had negligible effects.