Bacterial infections have caused serious threats to public health due to the antimicrobial resistance in bacteria. Recently, gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) have been extensively investigated for biomedical applications because of their superior structural and optical properties. Great efforts have demonstrated that AuNCs conjugated with various surface ligands are promising antimicrobial agents owing to their high biocompatibility, polyvalent effect, easy modification and photothermal stability. In this review, we have highlighted the recent achievements for the utilizations of AuNCs as the antimicrobial agents. We have classified the antimicrobial AuNCs by their surface ligands including small molecules (<900 Daltons) and macromolecules (>900 Daltons). Moreover, the antimicrobial activities and mechanisms of AuNCs have been introduced into two main categories of small molecules and macromolecules, respectively. In accordance with the advancements of antimicrobial AuNCs, we further provided conclusions of current challenges and recommendations of future perspectives of antimicrobial AuNCs for fundamental researches and clinical applications.
Elucidating the metabolic mechanism of gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) in bacteria will play a pivotal role in bacterial detection and inhibition. A facile method to investigate the metabolic mechanism of AuNCs is demonstrated in this work. The cysteine-conjugated gold nanoclusters (Cys-AuNCs) were successfully prepared with orange-red fluorescence, high water solubility, and superior biocompatibility by one-pot green synthesis to determine bacterial metabolism. The suggested metabolic process was that Cys-AuNCs were metabolized by Escherichia coli, as verified through a decrease in the fluorescence intensity that was clearly detected at 30 min, indicating the breakage of cysteine on Cys-AuNCs, which was further confirmed via X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) that was used to observe the decrease in the size of Cys-AuNCs after being metabolized. The metabolic kinetics of Cys-AuNCs was determined by fitting the change in the fluorescence of Cys-AuNCs as a function of incubation time with E. coli, in which the rate constant could be a useful indicator for detecting different bacteria. In addition, the death of E. coli was characterized by an increase in intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) through metabolism. After the metabolism of cysteine on Cys-AuNCs by E. coli, significant intracellular ROS generation was induced by the AuNCs that killed the bacterium due to its lack of the ROS scavenger, cysteine. Our work provides a potential rapid method for bacterial detection and inhibition.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.