Silver impact | Muntela

HOW SILVER AFFECTS THE BODY

Silver is widely used as an adjunct in wound healing due to its strong antimicrobial activity. It can be used as a topical or a dressing that should be applied to the wound. However, silver can potentially impair the healing process by exerting toxic effects on keratinocytes and fibroblasts.
The published literature on the use of silver in wound care is very heterogeneous, making it difficult to generate useful treatment guidelines.
Existing studies seem to demonstrate that some forms of silver are more toxic than others. For example, Acute symptoms of overexposure to silver nitrate are decreased blood pressure, diarrhea, stomach irritation and decreased respiration. Chronic symptoms from prolonged intake of low doses of silver salts are fatty degeneration of the liver and kidneys and changes in blood cells.

There are two ways of having reactive silver. The first one is reactive silver nanoparticles and the other one is silver ion (Ag+).
The major advantage of silver ion is that it has a broad antimicrobial spectrum, and is cytotoxic to bacteria, viruses, yeast, and fungi.
However, there is a hidden danger of silver ion use. It binds to DNA, RNA, and various proteins, leading to cell death via multiple mechanisms, such as protein and nucleic acid denaturation. Consequently, wound healing process can be slowed down.
In addition, once silver penetrates the skin and is absorbed by the human body, it cannot be degraded and must be released in urine, or bioaccumulated. This can lead to chemical intoxication, potentially leading to some severe diseases, such as irreversible pigmentation of the skin (argyria) and/or the eyes (argyrosis)

A study in early patients with chronic wounds show that:

In Half of the cases displayed, the silver level raised after 1 month of treatment.
The systemic silver absorption was wound area, anemia and malnutrition with anemia and malnutrition confirmed on multivariate analysis.

Both long-term application and iterative treatments with silver dressings should be discouraged, especially in the elderly, who often suffer from malnutrition and anemia to avoid potential cumulative toxicity.

New solutions specific for bacteria that do not rely on Silver Cation permeation are needed.

Current products in the market have high cell permeation and toxicity for the patients.