Impact of Biosynthesized Silver Nanoparticles on Bacterial Growth

Abstract

Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disease which causes the production of viscous mucus in airways which limits airflow and creates the perfect conditions for bacterial growth. Unfortunately, deaths due to bacterial infections in Cystic Fibrosis patients have increased as bacterial strains have developed antibiotic resistance.  Researchers have found that silver nanoparticles offer a solution to growing antibiotic resistance due to how no resistance has been developed to them in clinical trials. Current research is focusing on the bio-synthesis of silver nanoparticles which does not produce the harmful waste products seen with the industrial production of silver nanoparticles. However, there is a lack of comparative research concerning the effectiveness of silver nanoparticles produced by different microorganisms, which is what the researcher’s work addressed. The researcher’s work primarily focused on determining how effective silver nanoparticles produced by different bacterial species were at inhibiting bacterial growth. Through the collection of nanoparticles via extracellular synthesis, antimicrobial assays were conducted to determine the efficacy of silver nanoparticles produced by different microorganisms. The results indicated that silver nanoparticles produced by B. subtilis were the most effective in inhibiting bacterial growth. This provides a crucial as research in the field should increasingly focus on bacteria which utilize assimilatory nitrate reduction like B. subtilis because of the increased efficacy of silver nanoparticles produced by this method in inhibiting bacterial growth in aerobic conditions. Advances in this area could increase the efficiency of nanoparticle production and make it viable for industrial production.