Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Antibacterial effect of silver nanoparticles on Staphylococcus aureus

  • Published:
BioMetals Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The antibacterial activity and mechanism of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) on Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538P were investigated in this study. The experiment results showed the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of Ag-NPs to S. aureus was 20 μg/ml. Moreover, when bacteria cells were exposed to 50 μg/ml Ag-NPs for 6 h, the cell DNA was condensed to a tension state and could have lost their replicating abilities. When S. aureus cells were exposed to 50 μg/ml Ag-NPs for 12 h, the cell wall was breakdown, resulting in the release of the cellular contents into the surrounding environments, and finally became collapsed. And Ag-NPs could reduce the enzymatic activity of respiratory chain dehydrogenase. Furthermore, the proteomic analysis showed that the expression abundance of some proteins was changed in the treated bacterial cell with Ag-NPs, formate acetyltransferase increased 5.3-fold in expression abundance, aerobic glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase decreased 6.5-fold, ABC transporter ATP-binding protein decreased 6.2-fold, and recombinase A protein decreased 4.9-fold.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Baram-Pinto D, Shukla S, Perkas N, Gedanken A, Sarid R (2009) Inhibition of herpes simplex virus type 1 infection by silver nanoparticles capped with mercaptoethane sulfonate. Bioconjugate Chem 20:1497–1502

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cho KH, Park JE, Osaka T, Park SG (2005) The study of antimicrobial activity and preservative effects of nanosilver ingredient. Electrochim Acta 51:956–960

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cox MM (2007) The bacterial RecA protein: structure, function, and regulation. Mol Genet Recomb 17:53–94

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Espinosa-Cristóbal LF, Martínez-Castañón GA, Martínez-Martínez RE, Loyola-Rodríguez JP, Patiño-Marín N, Reyes-Macías JF, Ruiz F (2009) Antibacterial effect of silver nanoparticles against Streptococcus mutans. Materials Letters 63:2603–2606

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feng QL, Wu J, Chen GQ, Cui FZ, Kim TN, Kim JO (2000) A mechanistic study of the antibacterial effect of silver ions on Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. J Biomed Mater Res 52:662–668

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Franke S, Grass G, Nies DH (2001) The product of the ybdE gene of the Escherichia coli chromosome is involved in detoxification of silver ions. Microbiology 147:965–972

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs S, Pane′-Farre′ J, Kohler C, Hecker M, Engelmann S (2007) Anaerobic gene expression in Staphylococcus aureus. J Bacteriol 189(11):4275–4289

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hecker M, Reder A, Fuchs S, Pagels M, Engelmann S (2009) Physiological proteomics and stress/starvation responses in Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus. Res Microbiol 160:245–258

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hollenstein K, Dawson R JP, Locher KP (2007) Structure and mechanism of ABC transporter proteins. Curr Opin Struct Biol 17:412–418

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Iturriaga R, Zhang S, Sonek GJ, Stibbs H (2001) Detection of respiratory enzyme activity in Giardia cysts and Cryptosporidium oocysts using redox dyes and immunofluorescence techniques. J Microbiol Methods 46:19–28

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jung WK, Koo HC, Kim KW, Shin S, Kim SH, Park YH (2008) Antibacterial activity and mechanism of action of the silver ion in Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Appl Environ Microbiol 74(7):2171–2178

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kim S, Kim HJ (2006) Anti-bacterial performance of colloidal silver treated laminate wood flooring. Int Biodeterioration Biodegradation 57:155–162

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kim CW, Koopman B, Bitton B (1994) INT-dehydrogenase activity test for assessing chlorine and hydrogen peroxide inhibition of filamentous pure cultures and activited sludge. Water Res 28:1117–1121

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kim JS, Kuk E, Yu KN, Kim JH, Park SJ, Lee HJ, Kim SH, Park YK, Park YH, Hwang CY, Kim YK, Lee YS, Jeong DH, Cho MH (2007) Antimicrobial effects of silver nanoparticles. Nanomedicine: Nanotechnol Biol Med 3(1):95–101

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kim KJ, Sung WS, Moon SK, Choi JS, Kim JG, Lee DG (2008) Antifungal effect of silver nanoparticles on dermatophytes. J Microbiol Biotechnol 18(8):1482–1484

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kim KJ, Sung WS, Suh BK, Moon SK, Choi JS, Kim JG, Lee DG (2009) Antifungal activity and mode of action of silver nanoparticles on Candida albicans. Biometals 22:235–242

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lara HH, Ayala-Nuñez NV, Ixtepan-Turrent L, Rodriguez-Padilla C (2010) Mode of antiviral action of silver nanoparticles against HIV-1. J Nanobiotechnol 8:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Law N, Ansari S, Livens FR, Renshaw JC, Lloyd JR (2008) Formation of nanoscale elemental silver particles via enzymatic reduction by Geobacter sulfurreducens. Appl Environ Microbiol 74(22):7090–7093

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lee BU, Yun SH, Ji JH, Bae GN (2008) Inactivation of S. epidermidis, B. subtilis, and E. coli bacteria bioaerosols deposited on a filter utilizing airborne silver nanoparticles. J Microbiol Biotechnol 18(1):176–182

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Li WR, Xie XB, Shi QS, Zeng HY, Ou-Yang YS, Chen YB (2010) Antibacterial activity and mechanism of silver nanoparticles on Escherichia coli. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 85:1115–1122

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lok CN, Ho CM, Chen R, He QY, Yu WY, Sun H, Tam PK, Chiu JF, Chen CM (2006) Proteomic analysis of the mode of antibacterial action of silver nanoparticles. J Proteome Res 5:916–924

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lu L, Sun RW, Chen R, Hui CK, Ho CM, Luk JM, Lau GK, Che CM (2008) Silver nanoparticles inhibit hepatitis B virus replication. Antivir Ther 13:253–262

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rai M, Yadav A, Gade A (2009) Silver nanoparticles as a new generation of antimicrobials. Biotechnol Adv 27:76–83

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers JV, Parkinson CV, Choi YW, Speshock JL, Hussain SM (2008) A preliminary assessment of silver nanoparticle inhibition of monkeypox virus plaque formation. Nanoscale Res Lett 3:129–133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silver S (2003) Bacterial silver resistance: molecular biology and uses and misuses of silver compounds. FEMS Microbiol Rev 27:341–353

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Silver S, Phung LT, Silver G (2006) Silver as biocides in burn and wound dressings and bacterial resistance to silver compounds. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 33:627–634

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sondi I, Salopek-Sondi B (2004) Silver nanoparticles as antimicrobial agent: a case study on E. coli as a model for Gram-negative bacteria. J Colloid Interface Sci 275:177–182

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sun RW, Chen R, Chung NP, Ho CM, Lin CL, Che CM (2005) Silver nanoparticles fabricated in Hepes buffer exhibit cytoprotective activities toward HIV-1 infected cells. Chem Comm 40:5059–5061

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas V, Yallapu MM, Sreedhar B, Bajpai SK (2007) A versatile strategy to fabricate hydrogel-silver nanocomposites and investigation of their antimicrobial activity. J Colloid Interface Sci 315:389–395

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yamanaka M, Hara K, Kudo J (2005) Bactericidal actions of a silver ion solution on Escherichia coli, studied by energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy and proteomic analysis. Appl Environ Microbiol 71(11):7589–7593

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yoon KY, Byeon JH, Park JH, Hwang J (2007) Susceptibility constants of Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis to silver and copper nanoparticles. Sci Total Environ 373:572–575

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao GJ, Stevens SE (1998) Multiple parameters for the comprehensive evaluation of the susceptibility of Escherichia coli to the silver ion. Biometals 11:27–32

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Guangdong Natural Science Fund (10151007002000000, 10251007002000000), and Young People’s Foundation of Guangdong Academy of Sciences (qnjj200806).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Qing-Shan Shi or You-Sheng Ouyang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Li, WR., Xie, XB., Shi, QS. et al. Antibacterial effect of silver nanoparticles on Staphylococcus aureus . Biometals 24, 135–141 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-010-9381-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-010-9381-6

Keywords

Navigation