In lecture this week we covered how the interaction between cells and a particle must be modulated in order to regulate the intake of a drug. One example of a biomaterial that uses this technique are silver nanoparticles. Silver nanoparticles have an antibacterial effect due to the specific properties of silver ions. Due to these properties, the nanoparticles are able to be used for wound healing where there is a desire to limit the inflammatory response that the body may have to the foreign body introduced to the wound.

In the article, the silver nanoparticles were used to treat a wound and the healing process was compared to being treated with silver sulfadiazine and with no treatment. It was found that the use of nanoparticles caused the wound to heal the fastest and also with the best cosmetic outcome, meaning that the wounded area resembled pre-injury the most. The image below depicts the progression of the healing process over 25 days with treatment with silver nanoparticles and treatment with silver sulfadiazine.

Although silver sulfadiazine has been known to be the best treatment for burns, silver nanoparticles performed better for this wound healing experiment.

Overall, it was determined that the silver nanoparticles had the best results due to its antibacterial properties, as well as the ability to modulate cytokines expression. This is exactly what we learned in lecture. By modulating the cell-particle interaction, the nanoparticles are able to have lower levels of IL-6 mRNA, which contributes to inflammation.  Thus, the material is able to have a more beneficiary effect to the healing process.

Although the results of using nanoparticles seem favorable, it is still important to note that the experiments were done only in animals, specifically mice. In order to further understand the true success of this biomaterial, it would be necessary to conduct experiments using a wound healing model that more closely resembles that of a human.

References: Tian, J. , Wong, K. , Ho, C. , Lok, C. , Yu, W. , Che, C. , Chiu, J. and Tam, P. (2007), Topical Delivery of Silver Nanoparticles Promotes Wound Healing. ChemMedChem, 2: 129-136. doi:10.1002/cmdc.200600171