EAPSI: Antimicrobial effects of gold and silver nanoparticles

细菌污染影响工业过程、食品加工设备、生物材料和其他生物医学污染。控制细菌在表面上的粘附和杀死有害细菌的能力需要开发新的方法。在过去的几十年里，病原菌对抗菌剂的耐药性已经成为一个主要的挑战。一种新的方法是使用一类新的纳米抗生素，它可以杀死细菌而不增加抗菌剂的耐药性。本项目的目标是研究如何将银纳米颗粒（AgNPs）和金纳米颗粒（AuNPs）用作抗菌剂。在不同的金属中，银以其抗菌和生长抑制作用而闻名。金在散装时不显示任何杀菌作用。然而，在纳米尺度上，一定尺寸范围内的金纳米颗粒具有一些独特的性质，使它们成为通过在细菌膜中形成孔来杀死细菌的良好候选物。这项研究的一个很大的好处是，由于AgNP和AuNP通过膜相关过程杀死细菌，因此细菌对它们的作用产生抗性的可能性很低。该项目将在韩国汉阳大学著名纳米生物技术专家Choi钟勋博士的指导下进行。金黄色葡萄球菌）和大肠杆菌（E.大肠杆菌）将被表征。将制备不同规格和浓度的NP溶液。纳米颗粒的形态和尺寸将通过透射电子显微镜（TEM）和光散射来表征。NP的静电荷将通过ζ电位测量进行表征。NPs对大肠杆菌的最小抑菌浓度（MIC）为1.5mg/L。coli和革兰氏阳性菌S.通过平板计数和生长速率实验确定金黄色葡萄球菌。这项NSF EAPSI奖是与韩国国家研究基金会合作资助的。

Bacterial contamination affects industrial processes, food processing equipment, biomaterials, and other biomedical contamination. The ability to control bacterial adhesion on surfaces and to kill harmful bacteria requires that new methodologies are developed. Over the last decades, the resistance of pathogenic bacteria to antimicrobial agents has become a major challenge. A novel approach would be to use a new class of nano-antibiotics, which can kill bacteria without promoting antimicrobial resistance. The goal of this project is to study how silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) can be exploited as antibacterial agents. Among different metals, silver is known for its antibacterial and growth inhibitory effects. Gold does not show any bactericidal effect in bulk amount. However at the nanoscale, gold NPs in a certain size range have some unique properties that make them good candidates for killing bacteria through pore formation in bacterial membranes. A great benefit of this research is that since AgNPs and AuNPs kill bacteria through membrane-associated processes, there is a low likelihood of bacteria being able to develop a resistance to their actions. This project will be conducted under supervision of Dr. Jonghoon Choi, a noted expert on nano-biotechnology, at Hanyang University in Korea.In this project the antimicrobial effect of gold and silver nanoparticles (NPs) on Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and Escherichia coli (E. coli) will be characterized. NP solutions of varying sizes and concentrations will be prepared. Morphology and size of NPs will be characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and light scattering. Electrostatic charge of NPs will be characterized via zeta potential measurements. Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of NPs on E. coli and S. aureus will be determined by using plate counting and growth rate experiments. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the National Research Foundation of Korea.