Metals have been well known to have potential roles in curing wounds of ancient times. Among these silver has been admired as a reputed agent. Researchers are now involved in various studies to crack down how this metal worked as such a reliever. A group of scientists are now using higher end techniques like the gene-editing platform Crispr-Cas9 to get the insight about how actually silver poisons and kills pathogenic microbes and when & in what conditions does it fails. The study is also inaugurating new paths for the creation of effective antimicrobials which can invade through antimicrobials resistant particles.
According to Science Daily, Joe Lemire, a Postdoctoral fellow from the University of Calgary with his team of researchers are testing a number of harmful bacterial species which comes with the resistance capacity over silver's antimicrobial properties. In the process, they are also taking the help of Crispr-Cas9 genome editing to examine and kill those genes from the genomes, which allow these hyper bacterial species to stay alive and active. It is true that other methods like antibiotic treatments and similar kinds of stuff also boast the capacity to delete such bacterial activities to certain extents. But with the help Crispr-Cas9 genome editing techniques, these bacterial species can be removed to a greater extent without leaving behind any marks.
As per another report by Phys, by using such techniques, Lemire alongside his co-workers have also been able to modify, extend and elevate silver's antimicrobial properties to certain stages. He stated: "With our enhanced mechanistic understanding of silver toxicity, we also aim to develop novel silver-based antimicrobial therapies, and potentially rejuvenate other antibiotic therapies that bacteria have come to resist, via silver-based co-treatment strategies."
Lemire and his team have been able to crack down many biological pathways where silver's toxicity can be utilized to curb the bacterial activities in the body. He also seems to be hopeful to more innovation with silver's unique antimicrobial properties for upcoming decades and more.
