Photoactive Silver Nanoagents for Backgroundless Monitoring and Precision Killing of Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria.

ABSTRACT: Purpose: The growing prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria makes it clinically urgent to develop an agent able to detect and treat infections simultaneously. Silver has served as a broad-spectrum antimicrobial since ancient times but suffers from major challenges such as moderate antimicrobial activity, nonspecific toxicity, and difficulty to be visualized in situ. Here, we propose a new photoactive silver nanoagent that relies on a photosensitizer-triggered cascade reaction to liberate Ag⁺ on bacterial surfaces exclusively, allowing the precise killing of MDR bacteria. Additionally, the AgNP core acts as a backgroundless surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate for imaging the distribution of the nanoagents on bacterial surfaces and monitoring

SUBMITTER: Xu Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8210445 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature