Silver-coated engineered magnetic nanoparticles are promising for the success in the fight against antibacterial resistance threat.

Abstract

The combination of patients with poor immune system, prolonged exposure to anti-infective drugs, and cross-infection has given rise to nosocomial infections with highly resistant pathogens, which is going to be a growing threat so termed "antibiotic resistance". Due to their significant antimicrobial activity, silver nanoparticles are recognized as a promising candidate to fight against resistant pathogens; however, there are two major shortcomings with these nanoparticles. First, the silver nanoparticles are highly toxic to the healthy cells; second, due to the protection offered by the biofilm mode of growth, the silver nanoparticles cannot eradicate bacterial biofilms. In order to overcome these limitations, this study introduces a new class of engineered multimodal nanoparticles comprising a magnetic core and a silver ring with a ligand gap. The results indicated promising capability of the designed multimodal nanoparticles for high-yield antibacterial effects and eradication of bacterial biofilms, while the particles were completely compatible with the cells. Utilizing a gold ring as an intermediate coating on the produced nanoparticles may exploit new opportunities for theranosis applications. This will require special consideration in future works.