{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,7]],"date-time":"2026-07-07T02:54:57Z","timestamp":1783392897518,"version":"3.54.6"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,30]],"date-time":"2022-11-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1669766400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Antibiotics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Acanthamoeba castellanii is a ubiquitous free-living amoeba capable of instigating keratitis and granulomatous amoebic encephalitis in humans. Treatment remains limited and inconsistent. Accordingly, there is a pressing need for novel compounds. Nanotechnology has been gaining attention for enhancing drug delivery and reducing toxicity. Previous work has shown that various antibiotic classes displayed antiamoebic activity. Herein, we employed two antibiotics: ampicillin and ceftriaxone, conjugated with the nanocarrier zinc oxide and \u03b2-cyclodextrin, and tested them against A. castellanii via amoebicidal, amoebistatic, encystment, excystment, cytopathogenicity, and cytotoxicity assays at a concentration of 100 \u03bcg\/mL. Notably, zinc oxide \u03b2-cyclodextrin ceftriaxone significantly inhibited A. castellanii growth and cytopathogenicity. Additionally, both zinc oxide \u03b2-cyclodextrin ceftriaxone and ceftriaxone markedly inhibited A. castellanii encystment. Furthermore, all the tested compounds displayed negligible cytotoxicity. However, minimal anti-excystment or amoebicidal effects were observed for the compounds. Accordingly, this novel nanoconjugation should be employed in further studies in hope of discovering novel anti-Acanthamoeba compounds.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/antibiotics11121721","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,30]],"date-time":"2022-11-30T02:21:57Z","timestamp":1669774917000},"page":"1721","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Antiamoebic Properties of Ceftriaxone and Zinc-Oxide\u2013Cyclodextrin-Conjugated Ceftriaxone"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Zinb","family":"Makhlouf","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Arts and Sciences, American University of Sharjah, University City, Sharjah 26666, United Arab Emirates"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Noor","family":"Akbar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, University City, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7667-8553","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Naveed","family":"Khan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, University City, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates"},{"name":"Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Istinye University, Istanbul 34010, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Muhammad","family":"Shah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi 75270, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ahmad","family":"Alharbi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Taif University, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0017-4337","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hasan","family":"Alfahemi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Baha University, Al-Baha 65799, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9646-6208","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ruqaiyyah","family":"Siddiqui","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Arts and Sciences, American University of Sharjah, University City, Sharjah 26666, United Arab Emirates"},{"name":"Department of Medical Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Istinye University, Istanbul 34010, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106538","DOI":"10.1016\/j.actatropica.2022.106538","article-title":"5-Nitroindazole derivatives as potential therapeutic alternatives against Acanthamoeba castellanii","volume":"232","author":"Rosales","year":"2022","journal-title":"Acta Trop."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"497","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijpara.2022.03.007","article-title":"Elucidation of iron homeostasis in Acanthamoeba castellanii","volume":"52","author":"Grechnikova","year":"2022","journal-title":"Int. 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