New silver-based antibacterial gel 100 times more effective in killing hospital-acquired infections
Journal of Materials Chemistry states that the proposed medication is cheap, non-toxic and easy to synthesize,
Silver fighting infections in hospitals, wounds and more medical applications.
Silver as an industrial metal.
Jon Forrest Little discusses silver’s dire underinvestment.
Silver Technical analysis.
Dolly Varden Silver Corp at Beaver Creek Precious Metals Summit
Glossary of terms to better understand this article
AgNPs = silver nanoparticles
AgNCs = silver nanoclusters
The need of the synthesis of a new generation of medicines aimed at combating bacteria and biofilms that cause various infections is a great urgency. There has been a gradual decrease in the conventional techniques of treatment with the use of antibiotics. Consequently, much effort has focused on the search for new methods and approaches to obtain antibacterial drugs and determine their rational use such that microorganisms do not acquire resistance. AgNPs and AgNCs have effectiveness against multidrug-resistant bacteria and biofilms. There are very few simple, cheap and easy-to-scale methods to obtain AgNPs and AgNCs with well-desired characteristics.
Silver and sulphur-containing amino acids are the main components of a new antibacterial gel that is said to be a hundred times more effective than similar products.
A paper published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B states that the proposed medication is cheap, non-toxic and easy to synthesize, which means it could potentially be used to cure hospital-acquired infections.
According to the study, the synthesis of new-generation drugs that are aimed at fighting pathogenic bacteria and biofilms—microbial communities attached to each other or any other surface—has become urgent as the misuse of antibiotics has led to drug resistance in bacteria.
Silver has gained prominence as an effective antibiotic additive as the metal has antibacterial, antiviral and anti-fungal properties.
So far, silver nanoparticles have shown their effectiveness in wound dressings, implants and catheters. However, in order to obtain such nanoparticles scientists often use expensive and toxic materials that may sometimes leave traces in the structure of the drug, and that can be unsafe for humans.
Eco-friendly silver synthesis
To address these issues, scientists at Russia’s Tver State University have synthesized silver nanoparticles via an eco-friendly technology that doesn’t require toxic reactants.
In detail, they replaced hazardous substances with sulphur amino acids that the human body already has. The amino acid molecules reduce silver from its salts, create a gel and retain its structure.
Due to these properties, it has become easier to create gels with silver nanoparticles—it’s enough to just mix amino acid solutions and silver salts. This makes it possible to stop using noxious chemicals and doesn’t require any specific conditions, which simplifies the process.
The researchers tested the gel’s anti-bacterial abilities on ESKAPE bacteria colonies, which is a group of microorganisms that include Enterococcus, Staphylococcus, Klebsiella, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and Enterobacter. These antibiotic-resistant bacteria cause hospital-related infections, for example, pneumonia and otitis media.
The test results show that the anti-bacterial gel is a hundred times more effective at inhibiting the growth of microorganisms and the formation of biofilms than other well-known drugs based on silver.
“Our technology is simple, non-toxic and cheap enough to be easily scaled up. Due to this, it can be used in drug synthesis for the treatment of various diseases: acute, chronic and hospital-acquired bacterial infections,” Dmitry Vishnevetskii, who leads the project, said in a media statement.
“In the future, we plan to test the gels on lab animals in order to determine the gel’s safety and effectiveness.” - source mining.com
"Hospital-acquired infections are a major patient safety problem and a huge challenge for hospitals to contain. There has been some progress in rich nations in recent years, but much more work remains." - Dr. Monica Rull
“With silver showing monstrous supply deficits the past three years, there is an urgency to mine more silver. However, market investment towards natural resources and silver can only be called what it is: massive underinvestment.
On top of this, we are seeing more and more insane legislation reducing mining permits. There is so much disconnect between the regulatory side not understanding how desperately we need silver and other critical metals, or it's back to the stone age.” - Jon Forrest Little
Technical Analysis, Silver breaking out of 43 year old cup and handle.
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Very big picture there is a massive divergence between Gold & Silver. The last time the two had a larger divergence like this, silver played catch-up big time. And this time, silver will break out of a 43-year+ cup and handle. So the over-shoot this time should be absolutely mega. - Graddhy
All eyes on the gold to silver ratio
A return to 50-1 (conservative) shoots silver to $38.50 per ounce.
This is a 64% jump
Miners 5x, 10x, 15x (leveraged play)
Miners are the cheapest they’ve ever been
Position yourself now before the explosive commodity bull run stampedes on by
You want to be one of the bulls not one of the one’s trampled.
Dolly Varden Silver Corp
CEO Shawn Khunkhun presented this week at the 2023 Precious Metals Summit Beaver Creek.
He gives a thorough update on drilling at the Wolf deposit.
