TY - JOUR
T1 - Antibacterial activity of silver-killed bacteria
T2 - The "zombies" effect
AU - Wakshlak, Racheli Ben Knaz
AU - Pedahzur, Rami
AU - Avnir, David
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/4/24
Y1 - 2015/4/24
N2 - We report a previously unrecognized mechanism for the prolonged action of biocidal agents, which we denote as the zombies effect: biocidally-killed bacteria are capable of killing living bacteria. The concept is demonstrated by first killing Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 with silver nitrate and then challenging, with the dead bacteria, a viable culture of the same bacterium: Efficient antibacterial activity of the killed bacteria is observed. A mechanism is suggested in terms of the action of the dead bacteria as a reservoir of silver, which, due to Le-Chatelier's principle, is re-targeted to the living bacteria. Langmuirian behavior, as well as deviations from it, support the proposed mechanism.
AB - We report a previously unrecognized mechanism for the prolonged action of biocidal agents, which we denote as the zombies effect: biocidally-killed bacteria are capable of killing living bacteria. The concept is demonstrated by first killing Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 with silver nitrate and then challenging, with the dead bacteria, a viable culture of the same bacterium: Efficient antibacterial activity of the killed bacteria is observed. A mechanism is suggested in terms of the action of the dead bacteria as a reservoir of silver, which, due to Le-Chatelier's principle, is re-targeted to the living bacteria. Langmuirian behavior, as well as deviations from it, support the proposed mechanism.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84928573560&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/srep09555
DO - 10.1038/srep09555
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C2 - 25906433
AN - SCOPUS:84928573560
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 5
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
M1 - 9555
ER -