Evaluation of the Antibacterial Potential of Reduced Graphene Oxide Against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Introduction: Staphylococcus aureus is recognized for its role in diverse clinical conditions, especially causing severe manifestations in patients with suppressed immune function. Methods: To evaluate bacterial presence, 24 clinical swab samples were systematically collected from suspected infection sites from patients in Najaf, Iraq. Bacterial culture yielded positive growth in 15 samples 62.5 %, and 10 isolates were confirmed as S. aureus through macroscopy, microscopy, biochemical tests, and VITEK 2 identification. Results: Antibiotic susceptibility tests revealed high resistance rates, with 70 % of isolates resistant to ceftriaxone, followed by gentamicin, cephalosporin, erythromycin, and tetracycline, each at 60 %. Intermediate resistance was observed with chloramphenicol at 50 %, while the lowest rates were noted for rifampin and levofloxacin at 40 %. A significant proportion of the isolates 70 % exhibited resistance to multiple antimicrobial classes, while methicillin resistance was confirmed in 40 % of the S. aureus strains. When tested against these isolates, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) showed no inhibitory growth of S. aureus using the agar well diffusion assay. Conclusion: The findings highlight a pressing demand for innovative treatment approaches to address this growing resistance, given the increasing resistance to antibiotics and the failure of unmodified rGO to provide effective bacterial inhibition under the conditions tested.