Synergistic Activities of a Silver(I) Glutamic Acid Complex and Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS): A Novel Antimicrobial and Chemotherapeutic Agent

K.      I. Batarseh; M.      A. Smith

Abstract

The antimicrobial and chemotherapeutic activities of a silver(I) glutamic acid complex with the synergistic concomitant generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were investigated here. The ROS generation system employed was via Fenton chemistry. The antimicrobial and chemotherapeutic activities were investigated on Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 43300 and Escherichia coli bacteria, and Vero and MCF-7 tumor cell lines, respectively. Antimicrobial activities were conducted by determining minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), while chemotherapeutic efficacies were done by serial dilution using standard techniques to determine the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50). The antimicrobial and chemotherapeutic results obtained were compared with positive control drugs gentamicin, oxacillin, penicillin, streptomycin and cisplatin, a ubiquitously used platinum-based antitumor drug, and with the silver(I) glutamic acid complex and hydrogen peroxide separately. Based on MIC and IC50 values, it was determined that this synergistic approach was very effective at extremely low concentrations, especially when compared with the other drugs evaluated here. This finding might be of great significance regarding metronomic dosing when this synergistic approach is clinically implemented. Since silver at low concentrations exhibits no toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic activities, this might offer an alternative approach for the development of safer silver-based antimicrobial and chemotherapeutic drugs, thereby reducing or even eliminating the toxicity associated with current drugs. Accordingly, the present approach might be integrated into the systemic clinical treatment of infectious diseases and cancer.

Keywords: Antimicrobial, chemotherapy, Escherichia coli, glutamic acid, MCF-7, reactive oxygen species (ROS), silver, Staphylococcus aureus, vero,