Danielle McShan

Silver is an ancient antibiotic that has found many new uses due to its unique properties on the nanoscale. Due to its presence in many consumer products, the toxicity of nanosilver has become a hot topic. This review summarizes recent advances, particularly the molecular mechanism of nanosilver toxicity. The surface of nanosilver can easily be oxidized by O(2) and other molecules in the environmental and biological systems leading to the release of Ag(+), a known toxic ion. Therefore, nanosilver toxicity is closely related to the release of Ag(+). In fact, it is difficult to determine what portion of the toxicity is from the nano-form and what is from the ionic form. The surface oxidation rate is closely related to the nanosilver surface coating, coexisting molecules, especially thiol-containing compounds, lighting conditions, and the interaction of nanosilver with nucleic acids, lipid molecules, and proteins in a biological system. Nanosilver has been shown to penetrate the cell and become internalized. Thus, nanosilver often acts as a source of Ag(+) inside the cell. One of the main mechanisms of toxicity is that it causes oxidative stress through the generation of reactive oxygen species and causes damage to cellular components including DNA damage, activation of antioxidant enzymes, depletion of antioxidant molecules (e.g., glutathione), binding and disabling of proteins, and damage to the cell membrane. Several major questions remain to be answered: (1) the toxic contribution from the ionic form versus the nano-form; (2) key enzymes and signaling pathways responsible for the toxicity; and (3) effect of coexisting molecules on the toxicity and its relationship to surface coating.

Graphene-based nanomaterials (GBNs) have attracted increasing interests of the scientific community due to their unique physicochemical properties and their applications in biotechnology, biomedicine, bioengineering, disease diagnosis and therapy. Although a large amount of researches have been conducted on these novel nanomaterials, limited comprehensive reviews are published on their biomedical applications and potential environmental and human health effects. The present research aimed at addressing this knowledge gap by examining and discussing: (1) the history, synthesis, structural properties and recent developments of GBNs for biomedical applications; (2) GBNs uses as therapeutics, drug/gene delivery and antibacterial materials; (3) GBNs applications in tissue engineering and in research as biosensors and bioimaging materials; and (4) GBNs potential environmental effects and human health risks. It also discussed the perspectives and challenges associated with the biomedical applications of GBNs.

A combination of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and an antibiotic can synergistically inhibit bacterial growth, especially against the drug-resistant bacteria Salmonella typhimurium. However, the mechanism for the synergistic activity is not known. This study chooses four classes of antibiotics, β-lactam (ampicillin and penicillin), quinolone (enoxacin), aminoglycoside (kanamycin and neomycin), and polykeptide (tetracycline) to explore their synergistic mechanism when combined with AgNPs against the multidrug-resistant bacterium Salmonella typhimurium DT 104. Enoxacin, kanamycin, neomycin, and tetracycline show synergistic growth inhibition against the Salmonella bacteria when combined with AgNPs, while ampicillin and penicillin do not. UV-vis and Raman spectroscopy studies reveal that all these four synergistic antibiotics can form complexes with AgNPs, while ampicillin and penicillin do not. The presence of tetracycline enhances the binding of Ag to Salmonella by 21% and Ag(+) release by 26% in comparison to that without tetracycline, while the presence of penicillin does not enhance the binding of Ag or Ag(+) release. This means that AgNPs first form a complex with tetracycline. The tetracycline-AgNPs complex interacts more strongly with the Salmonella cells and causes more Ag(+) release, thus creating a temporal high concentration of Ag(+) near the bacteria cell wall that leads to growth inhibition of the bacteria. These findings agree with the recent findings that Ag(+) release from AgNPs is the agent causing toxicity.

Synergistic antibacterial activity of combined silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with tetracycline (polykeptide), neomycin (aminoglycoside), and penicillin (β-lactam) was tested against the multidrug resistant bacterium Salmonella typhimurium DT104. Dose-dependent inhibition of Salmonella typhimurium DT104 growth is observed for tetracycline-AgNPs and neomycin-AgNPs combination with IC50 of 0.07 μg/mL and 0.43 μg/mL, respectively. There is no inhibition by the penicillin-AgNPs combination. These results suggest that the combination of the ineffective tetracycline or neomycin with AgNPs effectively inhibits the growth of this bacterium. The synergistic antibacterial effect is likely due to enhanced bacterial binding by AgNPs assisted by tetracycline or neomycin, but not by penicillin.

Water-soluble carbon nanotubes have been found to be one of the most promising nanomaterials in biological- and biomedical-based applications. However, there have been major concerns on their ability to cause cellular and DNA damages upon exposure. In this work, we explore the toxic effects of three multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs: nonpurified, purified and carboxylate-functionalized) on human skin keratinocytes (HaCaT). Cytotoxicity tests using the conventional thiazolyl blue tetrazolium bromide (MTT) and the water-soluble tetrazolium (WST-1) assays for 0.5 or 24 h exposure to 20 μg/mL of MWCNTs show that all three caused minimum cytotoxicity that is generally not statistically significant. Assessment of direct and oxidative DNA damages using both alkaline Comet assay and formamidopyrimidine DNA glycosylase-modified Comet assay reveals that the treatment with 20 μg/mL of MWCNTs does not cause significant direct DNA damages, but causes great amount of oxidative DNA damages in HaCaT cells. The oxidative DNA damage reaches the maximum amount at 4 h of incubation in Dulbecco's minimum essential medium, but decreases to the minimum at 8 and 24 h of incubation, indicating repair of the oxidative damages by the intrinsic DNA repair mechanism of the cells.