Gayan Kanchana Wijesinghe

University of Bristol | UB · Biomaterials and Microbiology

Hygrophila schulli which is known as "Neermulli'' in the vernacular is an herbaceous plant native to Sri Lanka. Ancient medicinal literature suggests the use of H. schulli whole plant or its parts for the treatment of different communicable and non-communicable diseases including diabetes mellitus and tuberculosis. Active constituents and secondary...

Purpose of ReviewThis review serves to highlight the cross-kingdom interactions that can occur within the human oral cavity between fungus Candida albicans and oral bacteria, and their impact on the delicate balance between oral health and disease.Recent FindingsA growing number of physical, chemical, and metabolic networks have been identified tha...

Modifying and functionalizing activated carbon using metal nanoparticles have received great scientific attention in recent decades as a method to improve its inherent properties. The synergistic effects between the dopant and the activated carbon could lead to advanced properties in the hybrid material compared to individual counterparts. In this...

Background: The incidence of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is very high in South Asia and Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the key factors essential for cancer growth. The importance of VEGF-A and VEGF Receptor 2(VEGFR-2) in oral cancer pathophysiology is yet to be decided. Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A (VEGF-A) is...

This study reports the synthesis and characterization of a phosphate functionalized porous activated carbon filter material suitable for sachet filters to remove fluoride, hardness and bacterial pathogens in drinking water. Phosphate functionalized activated carbon is prepared by treating waste coconut coir dust with phosphoric acid/water vapor fol...

Purpose This study was conducted to determine the biofilm formation of coagulase negative Staphylococcus species (CoNS) isolated from patients with catheter related blood stream infection (CRBSI) and colonized central venous catheters (CVC) and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns and in situ biofilm formation of CVC tips. Methods Eighty-two C...

Metal doped TiO2 has received increased scientific attention as visible‐light active photocatalytic materials. In this study, a novel, greener, microwave assisted synthetic route was employed to synthesize cobalt doped ilmenite (FeTiO3) /rutile (TiO2) without the need for isolation of TiO2 from natural sand. The successful doping of cobalt into ilm...

Plant derivatives have been used for centuries to treat various health disorders of the human including microbial infections. A vast majority of these infections are initiated and perpetuated by biofilms. This study investigated the biofilm suppressant effect of phytomedicinal preparations used widely in traditional Ayurvedic medicine. Triphala, a...

Candida is becoming more resistant to conventional treatments, and causes persistent and severe infections. This study evaluates the antifungal and virulence activities of the hydroalcoholic extract of Phyllanthus niruri (HE-Pn) on Candida. HE-Pn was prepared by maceration technique. Chemical composition of HE-Pn was determined using Gas Chromatogr...

Activated Carbon (AC) is a promising material that can effectively purify and enhance the quality of drinking water. Metal doped AC nanohybrids have received a high scientific interest due to their synergistic effect on both metal dopant and the activated carbon material. In this study, Copper nanoparticles doped activated carbon (Cu-ACC) is synthe...

Objective(s): The essential oil (EO) extracted from Cinnamomum verum leaves has been used as an antimicrobial agent for centuries. But its antifungal and antibiofilm efficacy is still not clearly studied. The objective of this research was to evaluate the in vitro antifungal and antibiofilm efficacy of C. verum leaf EO against C. albicans, C. tr...

Background: There is a debate as to whether some types of oral leucoplakias (OL) are caused by Candida species, and whether they contribute to the malignant transformation, associated with a minority of such lesions. As no detailed population analysis of yeast isolates from OL is available, we evaluated the virulence attributes, and genotypes of 3...

Thermal instability, photodegradation, and poor bioavailability of natural active ingredients are major drawbacks in developing effective natural product-based antimicrobial formulations. These inherited issues could be fruitfully mitigated by the introduction of natural active ingredients into various nanostructures. This study focuses on the deve...

Phytomedicines are becoming more popular in treatment of infectious diseases worldwide. Cinnamomum verum essential oil (EO) has been used as a therapeutic alternative for various diseases. This study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial and antibiofilm activity of the C. verum leaf EO against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsie...

Synthesis of hybrid drug molecules from naturallyoccurring organic compounds has potential applications in severalfields, including theranostics. In this work, we report the extraction ofplumbagin from the roots ofPlumbago indicaL. and used it as aprecursor to prepare plumbagin-functionalized magnetite nanoparticles(PFMNPs). The derived PFMNPs were...

Medicinal plants play a major role as an alternative therapeutic agents for various disease conditions including cardiac and hepatic diseases, microbial infections and non-communicable disease such as diabetes mellitus. With the excessive use of synthetic antimicrobial drugs, micro-organisms become more virulent and resistant to available antimicro...

BACKGROUND: Essential oils (EO) extracted from Cinnamomum verum has been used as an antimicrobial agents for centuries. The effects of C. verum leaf oil against virulence of microorganisms is not well studied yet. OBJECTIVES: This study evaluates the effect of C. verum leaf oil against three virulence factors of Candida albicans, C. tropicalis and...

The human microbiome undergoes variation in the most diverse regions of our body, according to the conditions to which it is exposed, being of vital importance for human health. It presents several conditions that can promote the establishment of microorganisms and in imbalance favor the development of opportunistic pathogens, the knowledge of the...

Medicinal plants have long been used as an alternative in the treatment of diseases, whether using extracts, essential oils and / or bioactive components. Thus, the use of medicinal plants, with popularly known effects for the treatment of infections, has gained prominence, in research related to extracts and essential oils of medicinal plants, in...

Biofilms are surface attached, matrix embedded micro-organisms. Biofilms are difficult to eradicate since Biofilm structure prevents the penetration of chemical agents and makes more resistant to antimicrobials. This research evaluate the efficacy routine chemical agents in removing bacterial biofilms. Agar well diffusion, MIC and MBC evaluate the...

Objective: This study evaluated the effect of hydrogen peroxide addition on β-cyclodextrin-conjugated methylene blue in photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT) inS. mutans biofilm model using laser or light emitting diode (LED) (λ = 660 nm). Methods: A preliminary assay was performed to evaluate the cytotoxicity of hydrogen peroxide in or...

Objective: Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus dual species biofilm infections are notoriously difficult to manage. This study was aimed at investigating the influence of four different culture media on the planktonic growth, adhesion and biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Materials and methods: W...

The study aimed to determine the antibacterial/antibiofilm effect and mechanism of interaction of curcuminoids‐intercalated Mg/Al layered double hydroxide (curcuminoids‐LDH) against three different bacteria. Antimicrobial effect of curcuminoids‐LDH nanohybrid was investigated against P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, and E. faecalis (for both standard stra...

Objective: To determine the effect of glucose, sucrose, and saccharin on growth, adhesion and biofilm formation of Candida albicans and C.tropicalis. Materials and methods: The growth rates of mono-cultures of planktonic C. albicans and C. tropicalis and co-cultures (1:1), were determined in yeast nitrogen broth supplemented with 5% (30 mM) and...

As there are sparse data on the impact of growth media on the phenomenon of biofilm development for Candida we evaluated the efficacy of three culture media on growth, adhesion and biofilm formation of two pathogenic yeasts, Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis. The planktonic phase yeast growth, either as monocultures or mixed cultures, in sabo...