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.
The authors state, “The combined results suggest that silver nanoparticles may damage the structure of the bacterial cell membrane and depress the activity of some membranous enzymes, which cause E. coli bacteria to die eventually… For the first time, we offer evidences to indicate that silver nanoparticles can inhibit bacterial growth and even kill the cells through destroying bacterial membranous structure and permeability.”
