Ping Li et al. studied that the Ag nanoparticle
shows enhanced antibacterial effect against E. coli used
with amoxicillin, a ß-lactum antibiotics [77]. When
amoxicillin and silver nanoparticles are combined, it
results in greater bactericidal efficiency on Escherichia
coli cells than when they were applied separately.
Nanosilvers and amoxicillin can kill bacteria with a
different mechanism. If bacteria have resistance to one
of them, another antimicrobial agent would kill the
bacteria in a quite different way. This plays an
important role especially when the bacteria gain
antimicrobial resistance.
Till now, scientists have established the
antibacterial mechanism of ß-lactam antibiotics
[78, 79]. The silver application on burning therapy has
existed for more than a century [80, 81]. Some
hypotheses indicated that catalytic oxidation of silver
ions, with nascent oxygen, reacts with bacterial cell
membranes, leading to cell death. More recently, it has
been demonstrated that the bactericidal effect of silver
was caused by silver (I) chelation preventing DNA
from unwinding [82].
If the bacterium does not show any resistence, the
synergistic effect may be caused by a bonding reaction
between amoxicillin and nanosilver. Amoxicillin
molecules contain many active groups such as hydroxyl
and amido groups. These groups react easily with
nanosilver by chelation. Amoxicillin molecules
themselves can bind each other through Vander-waals
interaction and other weak bonds. Ultimately, the
antimicrobial groups come into being, which are made
up of a nanosilver core and the surrounding amoxicillin
molecules (Fig. 8). Whenever antimicrobial groups act
on one point at the surface of the bacterial cells they
cause more destruction. Thus, the process of
antimicrobial group forming is actually that of
increasing the antimicrobial agents’
concentration.Vancomycin antibiotic bind with FePtnanoparticles
because of multivalent nature of the
particle and helps to enhance the antibacterial nature of
antibiotics