Essential oil active constituents loaded PVA nanofibers enhance antibiofilm activity against Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis

Candida species cause infections in immunocompromised patients, making them resistant against available antifungal drugs. Therefore, developing new therapeutic intervention to prevent biofilm formation with minimal toxicity is urgently needed. The present study aims to improve the anti-biofilm formation potential of terpenes (limonene/linalool) by nanofiber encapsulation using electrospinning technique. Furthermore, nanofibers were characterized using an array of biophysical tools such as FESEM, FTIR, TGA/DTG, XRD, UV-Vis spectroscope, NMR, water contact angle. The average diameter was 175.54 +/- 41.61 nm and 158.37 +/- 40.32 nm for EO-ACs/ PVA-NF and PVA-NF respectively. The antibiofilm activity of EO-ACs nanofibers were evaluated by MTT assay. The data illustrate that EO-ACs loaded NF3 eradicate the Candida biofilm (>90%) and microscopic evidence also supported the MTT results. The cytotoxicity of EO-ACs/PVA-NF was found negligible to human embryonic kidney cells (HEK-293) and >80 % of cells were live.