SILVER NANOPARTICLES IN MEDICINE

Abstract

When writing this review, published data on the history of use, mechanism of action and the effectiveness of application of silver nanoparticles and preparations based on them in clinical practice were summarized and compared. This metal has been used in medical practice since ancient times, but statistical data on its effectiveness were obtained only at the end of the 19th century. Since then, it has become widely spread in the form of colloidal solutions, salts, and, in recent decades, nanoparticles. The interest to silver preparations is especially pronounced in connection with the spread of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms. Ions and nanoparticles attach to their cell wall, disrupt its functioning, destroy it, penetrate into the cell, where they bind to phosphorus and sulfur-containing molecules. Possessing such a non-specific mechanism of action, silver nanoparticles have a wide spectrum of antimicrobial and antifungal activity. According to the materials of the Cochrane Library, it can be concluded that silver nanoparticles possess clinically proven efficacy when used in surgery, dentistry, for manufacturing medical products that are used in surgery or transplantology.