ArticleBioactive materials2021
Overcoming bacterial physical defenses with molecule-like ultrasmall antimicrobial gold nanoclusters.
Article in Bioactive materials, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 91 citations in OpenAlex.
- Green Synthesized Gold Nanoparticles Using Naringin and Naringenin: Characterization, Biological Activities, and Cytogenotoxicity.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Aminotetrazole-Gold Nanocomplexes Shunt Electrons to Eradicate Bacteria Without ROS-Induced Resistance.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- Photodynamic/Photothermal Gold Nanoclusters Chitosan Sponge for Hemostasis and MRSA Infected Wound Healing.International journal of nanomedicine · 2026Article
- Non-antibiotic nanoplatform based CuS/AuNCs@Lip NPs for inhibition pneumonia caused by MRSA and its mechanism exploration.Materials today. Bio · 2025Article
- Nanotherapies based on bacterial metabolism: Mechanisms, design and application.Materials today. Bio · 2025Review
- Cu-Fe bimetallic peroxide-based nanozyme with microenvironment-triggered cascade catalysis for synergistic hydroxyl radical, nitric oxide, and oxygen generation in trimodal wound infection therapy.Materials today. Bio · 2025Article
- Antibiotic Alternatives: Multifunctional Ultra-Small Metal Nanoclusters for Bacterial Infectious Therapy Application.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Progress in antibacterial applications of nanozymes.Frontiers in chemistry · 2024Review
- Antibacterial Activity and Mechanism of Self-Assembly Spermidine-Capped Carbon Dots againstFoods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Synthesizing Carbon Quantum Dots via Hydrothermal Reaction to Produce Efficient Antibacterial and Antibiofilm Nanomaterials.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Size and charge effects of metal nanoclusters on antibacterial mechanisms.Journal of nanobiotechnology · 2023Review
- Eradication of Bacterial Persister Cells By Leveraging Their Low Metabolic Activity Using Adenosine Triphosphate Coated Gold Nanoclusters.Nano today · 2023Article
- Gold-Based Nanostructures for Antibacterial Application.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Ultra-Small Silver Nanoparticles: A Sustainable Green Synthesis Approach for Antibacterial Activity.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Turning on the Antimicrobial Activity of Gold Nanoclusters Against Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2023Article
- Gold nanoclusters-loaded hydrogel formed by dimeric hydrogen bonds crosslinking: A novel strategy for multidrug-resistant bacteria-infected wound healing.Materials today. Bio · 2022Article
- Antibiofilm activity of ultra-small gold nanoclusters against Fusobacterium nucleatum in dental plaque biofilms.Journal of nanobiotechnology · 2022Article
- Antibacterial metal nanoclusters.Journal of nanobiotechnology · 2022Review
- Gold Nanoclusters as Nanoantibiotic Auranofin Analogues.Advanced healthcare materials · 2022Article
- Biodegradable Protein-Stabilized Inorganic Nanoassemblies for Photothermal Radiotherapy of Hepatoma Cells.ACS omega · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The size of metal nanoparticles (NPs) is crucial in their biomedical applications. Although abundant studies on the size effects of metal NPs in the range of 2-100 nm have been conducted, the exploration of the ultrasmall metal nanoclusters (NCs) of ~1 nm in size with unique features is quite limited. We synthesize three different sized gold (Au) NCs of different Au atom numbers and two bigger sized Au NPs protected by the same ligand to study the size influence on antimicrobial efficacy. The ultrasmall Au NCs can easily traverse the cell wall pores to be internalized inside bacteria, inducing reactive oxygen species generation to oxidize bacterial membrane and disturb bacterial metabolism. This explains why the Au NCs are antimicrobial while the Au NPs are non-antimicrobial, suggesting the key role of size in antimicrobial ability. Moreover, in contrast to the widely known size-dependent antimicrobial properties, the Au NCs of different atom numbers demonstrate molecule-like instead of size-dependent antimicrobial behavior with comparable effectiveness, indicating the unique molecule-like feature of ultrasmall Au NCs. Overcoming the bacterial defenses at the wall with ultrasmall Au NCs changes what was previously believed to harmless to the bacteria instead to a highly potent agent against the bacteria.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.