• DOI:10.1038/s41565-017-0013-y
• Corpus ID: 26783560

Bacterial resistance to silver nanoparticles and how to overcome it

@article{Panacek2017BacterialRT,
  title={Bacterial resistance to silver nanoparticles and how to overcome it},
  author={Ales Panacek and Libor Kv{\'i}tek and Monika Smekalova and Renata Vecerova and Milan Kol{\'a}ř and Magdal{\'e}na R{\"o}derov{\'a} and Filip Dycka and Marek {\vS}ebela and Robert Prucek and Ondřej Tomanec and Radek Zbořil},
  journal={Nature Nanotechnology},
  year={2017},
  volume={13},
  pages={65-71}
}

• A. Panacek, L. Kvítek, +8 authors R. Zbořil
• Published 2017
• Biology
• Nature Nanotechnology

Silver nanoparticles have already been successfully applied in various biomedical and antimicrobial technologies and products used in everyday life. Although bacterial resistance to antibiotics has been extensively discussed in the literature, the possible development of resistance to silver nanoparticles has not been fully explored. We report that the Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli 013, Pseudomonas aeruginosa CCM 3955 and E. coli CCM 3954 can develop resistance to silver nanoparticles after repeated exposure. The resistance stems from the production of the adhesive flagellum protein flagellin, which triggers the aggregation of the nanoparticles. This resistance evolves without any genetic changes; only phenotypic change is needed to reduce the nanoparticles’ colloidal stability and thus eliminate their antibacterial activity. The resistance mechanism cannot be overcome by additional stabilization of silver nanoparticles using surfactants or polymers. It is, however, strongly suppressed by inhibiting flagellin production with pomegranate rind extract.Gram-negative bacteria exposed to subinhibitory concentrations of silver nanoparticles can develop resistance to their antibiotic activity due to the production of flagellin, an adhesive protein of the bacterial flagellum, which causes the aggregation of silver nanoparticles.