《Ultrasmall Ag^＋-rich nanoclusters as highly efficient nanoreservoirs for bacterial killing.》.pdf

ResearchArticle UltrasmallAg*-richnanoclustersashighlyefficient nanoreservoirsforbacterialkilling XunYuan，MagdielI．Setyawati，DavidT．Leong(圜 )，andJianpingXie( ) DepartmentofChemicalandBiomolecularEngineering,NationalUniversityofSingapore,4EngineeringDrive4,I17575,Singapore x．YuanandM．|．SetyawaticontributedequaIlytothiswork． Received：11October2013 ABSTRACT Revised：26November2013 Metallicsilver(Ag)anditsabilitytocombatinfectionhavebeenknownsince Accepted：1December2013 ancienthistory．Inthewakeofnanotechnologyadvancement，silversefficacyto fightbroadspectrum bacterialinfectionsisfurtherimprovedin theform ofAg ⑥TsinghuaUniversityPress nanoparticles(NPs)．Recentstudieshaveascribedthebroadspectrumantimicrobial and Springer-Verlag Berlin propertiesofAgNPstodissociationofAg ionsfrom theNPs，whichmaynot Heidelberg2013 beentirelyapplicablewhenthesizeofAgNPsdecreasestothesub一2nm range d【enotedAgnanoclusters (NCs)]．In thispaperwereportthatultrasmall KEYW oRDS glutathione (GSH)一protectedAg一rich NCs (AgR NCsforshort，with a noblemetalnanoclusters， predominanceofA speciesinhteNCs)havemuchhighernatimicrobialactivities silver, towardsbothgram—negativeandgram—positivebacteriathanthereferenceNC， antimicrobialagent, GSH-Ag~一RNCs．Theyhavehtesamesizena d surfaceligna d butwithdifferent ， biomedicine， oxidation statesofthecoresilver．Th isinterestingfindingsuggeststhatthe bacteria undissociated Ag一R NCsarmedwiht abundantAg ionson the surfaceare highlyactiveinbacterialkilling，whichwasnotobserved inthesystem oftheir largercounterpart，A