Will silver save us?

A while ago now I published a post explaining how antibiotic resistance in bacteria can develop, which you can find here: http://scienceyoucandigest.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/what-causes-antibiotic-resistance.html

The topic of antibiotic resistance is of crucial importance when considering global health. Over the last few decades the number of bacterial strains that have become resistant to antibiotics has dramatically increased, whilst the rate of newly developed antibiotics has drastically slowed. This has caused a mild panic within the scientific community over how we're going to combat bacterial growth once every strain has become resistant. 

Whilst it was previously thought that the only solution to this problem was developing new antibiotics at a quicker rate, a new method has now been developed where the action of old antibiotics is improved. This is done through the use of silver in the form of dissolved ions. In this form, silver is capable of attacking bacterial cells wither by interfering with their metabolism, or making their cell wall much more permeable. This allows for the more efficient delivery of higher quantities of the antibiotic entering the cell. Therefore, it is not necessarily the action of the silver itself that kills the bacteria. The silver instead facilitates and amplifies the action of the antibiotic, which previously had little effect on the drug resistant bacteria. 

The delivery of a small amount of silver alongside an antibiotic has been shown to increase its killing action by between 10 and 1,000 times. However, drug developers need to tread carefully when it comes to using silver as a therapy. This is because silver in its dissolved form is not only toxic to bacterial cells, but also to other cells within our body. This makes it crucial for new non-toxic forms of the dissolved silver to be discovered and developed, which may finally put the fear of antibiotic resistant bacteria behind us. 

What do you think of this new treatment? Write below with any questions or comments.