Skip to main content

REVIEW article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Antimicrobials, Resistance and Chemotherapy
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1440065
This article is part of the Research Topic Insights in Antimicrobials, Resistance and Chemotherapy: 2023 View all 6 articles

Advances in silver nanoparticles: A comprehensive review on their potential as antimicrobial agents and their mechanisms of action elucidated by proteomics

Provisionally accepted
Adriana S. Rodrigues Adriana S. Rodrigues 1*Jorge Batista Jorge Batista 1Murilo Á. Rodrigues Murilo Á. Rodrigues 1Velaphi Thipe Velaphi Thipe 2Luciene A. Minarini Luciene A. Minarini 3Patrícia S. Lopes Patrícia S. Lopes 3Ademar B. Lugão Ademar B. Lugão 1
  • 1 Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN), São Paulo, Brazil
  • 2 Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, United States
  • 3 Departamento de Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Diadema, Brazil

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Nanoparticles play a crucial role in the field of nanotechnology, offering different properties due to their surface area attributed to their small size. Among them, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have attracted significant attention due to their antimicrobial properties, with applications that date back from ancient medicinal practices to contemporary commercial products containing ions or silver nanoparticles. AgNPs possess broad-spectrum biocidal potential against bacteria, fungi, viruses, and Mycobacterium, in addition to exhibiting synergistic effects when combined with certain antibiotics. The mechanisms underlying its antimicrobial action include the generation of oxygen-reactive species, damage to DNA, rupture of bacterial cell membranes and inhibition of protein synthesis. Recent studies have highlighted the effectiveness of AgNPs against various clinically relevant bacterial strains through their potential to combat antibiotic-resistant pathogens. This review investigates the proteomic mechanisms by which AgNPs exert their antimicrobial effects, with a special focus on their activity against planktonic bacteria and in biofilms. Furthermore, it discusses the biomedical applications of AgNPs and their potential non-preparation of antibiotic formulations, also addressing the issue of resistance to antibiotics.Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are widely described in the literature as having a broad biocidal spectrum, covering Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, fungi, viruses and mycobacteria, in addition to acting synergistically with antibiotics to enhance their effectiveness (Misirli et al., 2021). These properties are based on diverse and complex mechanisms, including the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), DNA damage, impairment of bacterial cell membranes and inhibition of protein synthesis (

    Keywords: nanomaterials, silver nanoparticles, antimicrobial, Antibiofilm, antimicrobial resistance, mechanism of action, Proteomic analysis, protein expression

    Received: 28 May 2024; Accepted: 10 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Rodrigues, Batista, Rodrigues, Thipe, Minarini, Lopes and Lugão. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Adriana S. Rodrigues, Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN), São Paulo, Brazil

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.