Hybrid-lipid Coated Silver Nanoparticles as an Antimicrobial

Silver has been known to be an antimicrobial for hundreds of years, but wasn’t thought to be useful in the medical field until the 1960’s. In more recent years people have been designing different methods of synthesis for silver nanoparticles, yet none of these methods prevent the oxidized silver (Ag+), which is toxic. As the use of silver nano materials for antimicrobial activity has expanded there has been an increase in interest in the medical field, and how silver nanoparticles can be used as an antimicrobial without having toxic effects. While there is a large availability of silver nanoparticles (AgNp’s) design strategies for controlling the rate of release of Ag+ is not well defined. Having well defined design strategies for release rate can help provide control for items that need both slow and quick release such as mesh, bandages, catheters, and other medical tubing. Consequently, there is a gap in our understanding of how to control the release rate of silver for the purpose of controlled release of Ag+, and therefore be stabilized and used for a range of antimicrobial applications. Because of the critical need for non-toxic antimicrobial agents that can target and kill bacteria in medical implants such as mesh and tubing, this study is of significant interest. With the increased interest in nanoparticles as an antimicrobial this has led us to the research question: How does surface chemistry affect the antimicrobial abilities of AgNp’s? Within this question we have a subset of questions this research should be able to answer; Can the AgNp’s successfully kill without releasing silver? How does shape and size affect the killing ability of the nanoparticles? How does varying Ag+ release rate affect killing ability