Clinical Studies

Nanosilver is assumed to be a new material because of the relatively recent emergence of the term “nano”. However, on close inspection nanosilver materials have a long, 120-year history of relatively safe and regulated use, chiefly in the form of colloidal silver. Historical perspective demonstrates that nanosilver has been intentionally manufactured and adopted commercially across a wide spectrum of everyday applications for many decades.

Researchers discover one of the ways silver ions destroy pathogens, i.e., by attaching to DNA and preventing the pathogen from replicating.

This is an impressive review of the available medical data regarding the pharmacology and toxicology of silver used as an antimicrobial agent in medical devices. Published in the journal Advances in Pharmacological Sciences, and written by Alan B. G. Lansdown, the well-known British researcher and author of the definitive guide to the use of silver in medical situations, Silver in Healthcare: It’s Antimicrobial Efficacy and Safety in Use (Issues in Toxicology, RSC Publishing).

In this clinical study, published in 2008 in the journal Nanoscale Research Letters, researchers tested several forms of antimicrobial silver against the Monkeypox virus Zaire strain, which was originally obtained from a fatally infected human in Zaire and shown to be fatal in monkeys, as well. The virus was tested under biosafety level 3 conditions in order to prevent infection of the researchers.

In this animal study published in the journal Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology in January 2003, researchers tested the long-standing hypothesis that silver only indirectly promotes metallothionein production in the body by displacing zinc from its metallothionein bond. The liberated zinc would then go on to trigger additional metallothionein production, according to the theory being tested.

Colloidal silver demonstrated to be effective against smallpox virus.

This report is excerpted from a long-running debate on The Silver List. This is the brilliant blow-by-blow refutation of Frank Key’s “silver chloride hypothesis” by Stuart Thomson, director of research at Gaia Research Institute. Thomson demonstrates that, contrary to Key’s assertion, hydrochloric acid in the stomach does not render ionic silver insoluble.

Researchers tested mice for acute oral toxicity, eye irritation, corrosion and dermal toxicity of colloidal silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) following OECD guidelines. Oral administration of AgNPs at a limited dose of 5,000 mg/kg produced neither mortality nor acute toxic signs throughout the observation period. Percentage of body weight gain of the mice showed no significant difference between control and treatment groups.

Colloidal silver-treated laminate wood flooring keeps the bacteria away.

In a clinical study titled “Green Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles Using Tephrosia tinctoria and its Antidiabetic Activity,” published in the journal Material Letters, Volume 138, in January 2015, the researchers wrote: “The antidiabetic ability of the silver nanoparticles was tested and the results showed significant free radical scavenging ability, inhibition of carbohydrate digestive enzymes (a-Glucosidase and a-Amylase) and enhancement of Glucose uptake rate.”

This clinical study, published in May 2004 in the journal of Clinical and Experimental Dermatology, demonstrated that a topical nanosilver cream was used to heal allergic contact dermatitis induced in guinea pigs via application of a chemical organic compound called dinitrochlorobenzene. Essentially, the researchers used a chemical organic compound to cause dermatitis on the guinea pigs.

According to this clinical study, published in the International Journal of Nanomedicine in November 2011, researchers found for the first time that silver nanoparticles are effective against the Leishmaniasis pathogen — a protozoan parasite that causes Leishmaniasis, a disease that is potentially fatal if left untreated, and which causes ulcers of the skin, mouth and nose, plus fever, anemia and enlarged spleen and liver.

This clinical study, published in the journal Biomaterials in October 2013, was specifically designed to determine whether or not exposure to silver nanoparticles would “inhibit the grown of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells,” and thus represent a viable potential treatment for leukemia (i.e., cancer of the blood and bone marrow). According to the study authors, “We found that silver nanoparticles could inhibit the viability of AML cells including isolates from AML patients.”

In this clinical study, published in the journal BMC Cell Biology in September 2009, researchers discovered that when human glioblastoma cells (malignant brain cancer cells) were exposed to silver nanoparticles, the cancer cells engulfed the silver particles (via endocytosis) resulting in chromosomal instability and mitotic arrest (i.e., the cancer cells can no longer divide efficiently in order to form new cancer cells).

Electrically generated silver ions used in washing machines are shown to cause significant reductions in bacterial counts of Staph aureus and E. coli.

In this clinical study conducted at the Guangdong Institute of Microbiology at Guangzhou, China, and published in 2010 in Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, the researchers studied the antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles against E. coli, as well as the mechanism through which silver nanoparticles provided inhibitory and bactericidal effects.

Most researchers agree that silver kills bacteria in a three-fold manner, i.e., catalytic oxidation, cell wall disruption and penetration leading to disabling of the bacterium’s respiration and energy transfer systems, and prevention of replication by attaching to the DNA of the pathogen. What happens afterwards is what researchers did not know until now.

In this clinical study, published in the Journal of Academia and Industrial Research (JAIR) in May 2015, researchers synthesized silver nanoparticles using Cynodon dactylon leaf extract, and then tested it against the HEpG-2 line of liver cancer cells, as well as against pathogenic microbes such as against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus lutues and Salmonella typhimurium.

Low dose colloidal silver kills antibiotic-resistant staph and E.coli, and does not interfere with therapeutic efficacy of prescription antibiotics tested.

Silver nanoparticles are shown to dramatically reduce E. coli bacterial counts.

In this clinical study, published in the journal Open Access Scientific Reports in 2012, researchers tested silver nanoparticles against three different human cancer cell lines, i.e., laryngeal cancer cells (Hep2), breast cancer cells (MCF 7) and colon cancer cells (HT29).

In this abstract of a study conducted at the Department of Microbiology, College of Natural Sciences, at Kyungpook National University in South Korea, and published in the journal Biometals, researchers studied the anti-fungal effects of silver nano-particles and investigated their mode of action.

Here’s an interesting clinical study demonstrating the effectiveness of silver nanoparticles against the pathogen most commonly responsible for toenail fungus. According to the study, “Spherical silver nanoparticles (nano-Ag) were synthesized and their antifungal effects on fungal pathogens of the skin were investigated.

In this clinical study conducted at the Department of Biology, Islamic Azad University, and published by the 2011 International Conference on Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics, researchers examined the effects of silver nanoparticles – alone, and in combination with two well-known anti-fungal drugs – on the dermatophyte fungi Trichophyton rubrum.

The well-known 1976 study by R.O. Becker, Berger, Spadaro, Bierman and Chapin, which demonstrated conclusively the powerful antifungal properties of electrically generated silver ions.