Scientists at the University of Birmingham have made a big discovery.
They found out that silver can kill bacteria longer when it’s put into something called “bioactive glass.”
They showed that this mix gives better and longer-lasting protection against infections in wounds than in other ways.
What are Bioactive Glass and Silver?
Bioactive glasses are special man-made materials made from silicone. They’ve been used for many years in surgeries to fix bones.
Silver has been used for a long time to stop or slow down the growth of bacteria in open wounds. More people are using silver-based treatments because they work against many bacteria that don’t respond to antibiotics.
But for silver to work, it needs to stay in a form called “ionic.” This form allows silver to get inside bacterial cells and mess up their life cycle.
But silver ions or particles in wound dressings can change into something called silver sulfide or silver chloride. This change can make silver less able to kill bacteria, making the treatment less successful.
What Did They Discover?
The scientists studied how bioactive glass mixed with ionic silver affected bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
This bacteria is resistant to many drugs, can easily grow into colonies called biofilms, and often causes infections in long-lasting wounds.
Their research, which was published in the Biofilm journal, showed that certain ways to prepare, store, and use this mix can reduce the change of silver ions to silver chloride, keeping silver’s bacteria-killing power.
What’s Next?
The team in Birmingham has lots of experience with bioactive glass. They’ve used it as a material that can be broken down by the body and helps in grafting.
In this use, the important things about bioactive glass are its shape, which allows it to have a 3D porous structure that’s strong and can be packed, and the size and number of the glass fibers, which can support tissue growth.
The scientists want to work with companies that want to develop products for dental surgery or wound care.
Dr. Sam Moxon, who’s a part of the Birmingham team, has been studying the use of these materials in dental surgery and wound care.
He recently finished a program called ICURe (Innovation to Commercialization of University Research) and the team now wants to get clinical approval for the material.
Dr. Moxon will talk about this work at the UK Society for Biomaterials annual conference in Belfast on June 21st.
He will also give a keynote speech at the Future Investigators in Regenerative Medicine annual conference in Spain in September.
He will talk about his research from Birmingham and the team’s hopes to develop their new materials.
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The study was published in Biofilm.
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