Gold used in nanotechnology to fight microbial resistance  |  Photo Credit: iStock Images

Scientists are looking at new and innovative, even out-of-the-box methods to beat germs at their game of resistance. Mike McRae writes in Science Alertthat filling a germ's pockets with gold could be a handy way to end the infection. The scientific community has been watching helplessly as fast-mutating microbial strains have been putting up a wall of resistance against new medicines found by the medical fraternity. Could the nanotechnology-based gold weaponry turn into a practical antimicrobial therapy?

According to the Hindawi Journal of Nanomaterials, gold nanoparticles have photothermal effects, and modified gold nanoparticles can be a good medium for photothermal treatments to kill bacteria.According to Science Alert, researchers from the Southern University of Science and Technology and Fudan University in China, and the University of Leeds in the UK, recently joined forces to repackage gold nanoclusters to make them more appealing to bacteria and less damaging to our own bodies.

By weaving the gold into two molecules with contrasting levels of electrostatic stickiness, the team built a particle that has the potential to breach into the defences of many common bacterial pathogens but with such finesse that the surrounding tissues of the human body should not be damaged, points out Science Alert.

At first glance, gold might not seem like an obvious treatment for killing germs. Reduced to a speck of fine, nanoscale dust, this heavyweight element can wreak some serious damage. Gold nanoparticles are also excellent drug carriers that can improve the antibacterial effects of loaded antibacterial drugs. After being modified and combined with other antibacterial drugs, gold nanoparticles can also play a better antibacterial role for effective antibacterial strategies against some resistant bacteria.

One way that gold nanoparticles manage this is by facilitating chemical reactions that release oxygen species capable of damaging DNA.

According to Science Alert, another way that gold nanoparticles manage this is by interfering with cell membranes, making them more permeable to various toxic substances, such as antibiotics.

They can also absorb light from a laser with great efficiency, heating up and roasting their surroundings. Unfortunately, such handy ways of cleaning up infections do not always discriminate bacteria from the host, putting our own cells at risk from gold nanoparticle therapies.What is needed is a way to encourage bacteria to scoop up as much of the gold as they can, while ensuring our own cells don't do the same.

Science Alertpresents that inrecent years, engineers have manipulated the behaviour of gold nanoparticles in two ways.One is to precisely control their size. Keeping the particles under two nanometres helps the particles slip through our kidneys better, making for a quicker exit from our bodies. So, the researchers focused on limiting the size of their clusters to just 25 atoms.

According toScience Alert, the second is to incorporate 'sticky' chemical structures called ligands, bestowing various features that allow them to be easily tracked or help control the particle's shape. Tested on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis (MRSE), the augmented gold nanoclusters had a clear impact on the bacteria's ability to aggregate. It also generated reactive oxygen species and affected the integrity of its membranes.

Better still, when then dosed with various antibiotics, the bacterium's numbers dropped. In one case, the dose required to inhibit the MRSE's growth decreased more than 100-fold.Tests on rats with MRSE skin infections helped affirm the gold nanoparticles aided healing without hanging around to become a nuisance.

"By systematically tuning the ratio of the two ligands, we have identified a way of using gold nanoclusters not only to act as effective antimicrobial agents but as a mechanism to enhance the potency of antibiotics which have become ineffective because of bacterial drug resistance," says Dejian Zhou, a chemical engineer from Leeds.

"The research has a significance on the way we should be thinking about responding to antimicrobial resistance."

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Nanotechnology and medicine: Gold could be the unexpected secret weapon against antibiotic resistance - Times Now