Medical illustration of antibiotic resistant salmonella. Photo: Alison Nihart/ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Silver nitrate found to re-sensitise last-line antibiotic

18 March 2022

Colistin is an antibiotic used to treat drug-resistant infective diseases. As microbes evolve, the usefulness of this type of last-line antibiotic will be challenged.

A research team at the University of Hong Kong led by Professor Sun Hongzhe (Croucher Senior Research Fellowship 2010) used silver nitrate in combination with colistin to overcome drug-resistant pathogens. In 2020, the Sun team published similar findings in Nature Communications showing that the gold salt auranofin could be used in this way.

The work on silver nitrate points to a possible triple combination therapy using gold and silver salts, and antibiotics such as colistin.

“Considering the well-recorded safety history of silver nitrate as an ancient antimicrobial drug... silver nitrate can work with auranofin in treating infections,” said Professor Sun.

The findings were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.