Silver Nanoparticle as Antiviral Agent and Its Uses

Abstract

Silver had been used by human thousands of years ago as various types of medicines (RasaratnaSamuccahay, Bhagbhatta). As the years passes more scientific uses of silver metals had been seen as the human civilization progresses.After the discovery of nano technology Silver is being used in a variety of ways .Nano particles exhibits less toxicity as compared to their ionic counterpart. Nowadays silver is used in various forms colloidal silver Nanoparticle (AgNPs) is one of the main form of silver, Today is being used in Human body considering toxicity level Colloidal Silver is being used as a new antimicrobial agent having broad microbial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella typhi (Nauran H Assar and Hayam M Hamuoda,2010). Domestic cleaning products enhanced with antimicrobial silver have been patented(Minner and Eatough 2007).Viral infections make disparateneed for the development of safe and potent alternatives to conventional antiviral drugs. In now days, nanoscale materials have emerged as novel antiviral agents for the enormous possibilities offered by their unique chemical and physical properties. Colloidal silver or silver nanoparticle has its own antimicrobial properties to combat all types of viruses including human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B virus, herpes simplex virus, flu virus etc. Our main focus through this review is to literate the people about this rediscovered material and it hasantimicrobial properties which will be very much helpful for the society in long run.