Particles of silver could be used against MRSA

Link: Life Style Extra.

     Scientists have known for years that silver kills germs but it is most effective in the form of nanoparticles – tiny flecks of metal containing just a few hundred atoms. But the problem is that nanoparticles are hard to make in a useful form.

Now a team of physicists at Leicester University have built a machine that can produce them by the bottle, which could potenially save thousands of lives a year.

Chris Binns, professor of nanoscience at Leicester, said the microscopic silver particles are small enough to pass inside the germs and disrupt their inner workings – but they do not kill human cells. Just two or three nanoparticles are enough to kill one germ cell.

This means the nanoparticles could be a vital weapon in fighting the deadly diseases caused by bacteria.

The bacteria in the lungs of cystic fibrosis sufferers are especially hard to kill because a thick coating of mucus protects them from drugs, but nanoparticles can pass through, said professor Binns.

With the prototype �250,000 machine – about the size of a motorbike – the researchers have found a way to produce particles all the same size suspended in a liquid, which means it can be put in an aerosol and breathed in. It could also be injected.