Synergistic antimicrobial activity of silver and chitosan

Bacterial infections are one of the most worrying problems at present owing to the development of resistance to traditional antibiotic drugs. The alarming rise in resistance can be attributed to the uncontrolled and unnecessary use of these drugs. The search for new therapeutic options that will be effective against resistant bacterial strains is a key challenge today (Ahamed et al. 2015). In recent times, combination materials based on silver nanoparticles coupled with biodegradable polymers have drawn much interest from researchers and clinicians for combating multidrug-resistant bacterial strains. The synergistic antibacterial mechanisms of chitosan and silver nanoparticles are expected to provide more efficient control of bacterial infections. In this chapter, we will cover the synergistic antimicrobial activity of silver and chitosan (Huang et al. 2011).