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Silver nanoparticles (NPs) exhibit significant antimicrobial activity against a broad range of bacteria and fungi at concentrations ranging from a few ppm to tens of ppm that are not cytotoxic to human cells. Silver NPs also strongly enhance antibacterial activity against multiresistant, β-lactamase and carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae when combined with antibiotics. As a result, silver NPs have already been applied in various biomedical and antimicrobial technologies and products of every-day life as an alternative to conventional antibiotics. While antibiotic resistance has been discussed extensively in the literature, the possible development of resistance to silver NPs after repeated long-term exposure has not been fully explored. We report that bacteria can develop resistance to silver NPs after prolonged exposure. The observed resistance consists in aggregation of silver NPs which consequently eliminates their antibacterial effects. The resistance mechanism can be overcome by preventing the aggregation of silver NPs via their deposition on suitable inorganic substrate such as graphene oxide.
Keywords: Silver nanoparticle, graphene oxide, bacteria, antibacterial, antibiotic, resistance© 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.