Anti-proliferative activity of silver nanoparticles
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).
This, in turn, resulted in DNA breakdown and cellular apoptosis (cellular self-destruction). In short, silver caused the brain cancer cells to stop replicating, and die. The researchers compared the silver-treated brain cancer cells with silver-treated normal human fibroblast cells, and found that the normal human cells exhibited “efficient recovery” from the effects of the silver particles, while the cancer cells were “susceptible to damage with lack of recovery from Ag-np-induced stress.” In other words, the silver particles did not kill normal cells, but did kill the cancer cells.
