Silver-enzyme hybrids as wide-spectrum antimicrobial agents

Antimicrobial treatments are crucial to wound healing. Silver is often used as antimicrobial agent as nanoparticles embedded wound dressings. The efficacy of these dressings was, however, questioned. Here we discuss the potential reasons for poor efficacy of silver nanoparticles, focusing on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying silver antimicrobial activity. Our conclusion was that as silver antimicrobial activity is affected by silver ions and silver ions migration within physiological environment is poor, redesign of the structure and delivery of metallic silver nanoparticles is required. A novel design of silver nanoparticle-a soluble hybrid comprising an enzyme molecule core and porous metallic silver outer layer-was designed, produced, and characterized as wide-spectrum antimicrobial agent, offering unique enzymatically attenuated silver ions release and effective antifungal activity. Results obtained indicate that novel redesign of silver nanoparticles is feasible and may provide more effective antimicrobial treatments for chronic wound healing.