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Academic Editor:L. A. Dykman and Academic Editor:A. N. Obraztsov and Academic Editor:T. Pal
Laboratory of Biochemistry, Northwest Missouri State University, Garrett-Strong Science Building 3100, Maryville, MO 64468, USA
Received 12 November 2013; Accepted 2 January 2014; 12 February 2014
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
1. Introduction
The use of nanotechnology in everyday applications continues to increase due to unique chemical, optical, and mechanical properties of nanoparticles (NPs) [1] and it holds promise for multitude of potential applications in the fields of drug delivery [2], catalysis [3], cell and organelle labeling and imaging [4, 5], biological sensing [6], and detection of wide range of biomolecules [7-10]. The important characteristic of NPs that separates them from their bulk counterparts is high surface area to volume ratio. Moreover, it has been shown that materials at the nanoscale level have unique chemical and physical properties compared to their bulk counterpart, and these properties are important for a variety of technological applications.
Interaction of NPs with biomolecules and its application in combating microorganisms are a new avenue for research. Increase in bactericide and antibiotic-resistant microbial strains and the toxicity of some of these agents lead to growing interest in new types of safe and cost-effective antimicrobial agents [11]. Recent studies that metal and metal oxide NPs could be used as effective bactericidal materials open the door for development of a new type of antimicrobial materials [12, 13]. Among the noble-metal NPs, silver received attention due to its interesting physiochemical properties and for the well-known toxicity of its ionic form to bacteria [14]. Silver ions served as bactericide for a while in presulfa-drug era and used in dental resins composites [15] and in coatings of medical devices [16]; however, it was soon abandoned for its toxicity. Sondi and Salopek-Sondi [17] demonstrated Ag NPs as an effective bactericide against Gram-negative bacteria, E. coli . Elechiguerra et al. [18] have reported inhibition of HIV-1 transmission by size dependent interaction of Ag NPs with HIV-1. More antibacterial properties of Ag NPs have also been reported elsewhere [19, 20].
For metal nanocrystals, it...