Effects of Silver Nanoparticles on Growth of E. coli: A Study Examining Various Antibiotic Factors

Abstract

Nanomedicine, an emerging and revolutionary scientific field, warrants greater scientific investigation on the antibacterial applications of AgNPs; hence, this research serves to assess AgNPs’ antibacterial effectiveness on the growth of E. coli while establishing the antibiotic’s optimal conditions for drug delivery. The hypothesis expects that optimal drug delivery of AgNPs will occur at higher concentrations of AgNPs and neutral pHs. To demonstrate this, 1:10 serial AgNP dilutions were placed in E. coli cultures and were treated with the varying environmental factors of concentration and pHs. The results supported our hypotheses with the exception of our pH hypothesis, for the data showed that having a basic pH increased the efficiency of the nanoparticles for all concentrations, except for the 500 µg/L concentration. Nevertheless, higher concentrations of nanoparticles have the highest and fastest increases in their zones of inhibitions. The concentration and pH experiments yielded statistical significance. With nanomedicine’s ability to diagnose, detect, and deliver drugs, its research applications are endless, proving it has a significant impact in the fields of cancer drug delivery, E. coli toxicity, and ectopic pregnancies, and ultimately, having the potential to save over two million lives every year.