Dentistry is another area of application of graphene oxide
Graphene will help to cure caries
Anna Govorova, Infox.ru
Chinese experts from the Shanghai Research Institute of Dentistry and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have discovered another unique property of graphene, Infox reports. They found out that graphene oxide can destroy bacteria that cause human diseases of teeth and gums. Moreover, this substance is also able to fight resistant forms of bacteria that many antibiotics do not act on.
Graphene is a unique material. Recall that in 2010, the Nobel Prize in Physics for "Innovative experiments with a two–dimensional form of carbon – graphene" was awarded to students of the Russian school working at the University of Manchester – Professor Andrey Geim and Konstantin Novoselov. It was these scientists who were able to obtain graphene for the first time in 2004, provoking a rapid growth of interest and a flurry of scientific research devoted to this unique carbon material. Graphene is now widely used in electronics and many other fields.
Scientists learned about the antibacterial properties of graphene not so long ago. In 2010, Chinese scientists from the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics conducted an experiment that showed that graphene paper, which includes graphene oxide, easily deals with E.coli colonies. The advantage of this method of fighting bacteria is that graphene oxide acts only on pathogens, without affecting healthy cells, scientists emphasized at the time.
According to the lead author of the current research, Dr. Zisheng Tang, now that the resistance of many bacteria to antibiotics is growing, the search for new methods to combat pathogens is very important.
In their experiment, Dr. Tan and his colleagues decided to find out how graphene oxide nanopaper would act on three widespread bacteria – Streptococcus mutans, Porphyromonas gingivalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum, which cause severe periodontal disease, caries and many other diseases of the teeth and oral cavity in humans. The experiment was also conducted for forms resistant to antibiotics.
As it turned out, graphene oxide destroyed the cell walls and membranes of pathogenic bacteria, including forms resistant to antibiotics, due to which their growth and reproduction were suspended.
According to the authors, their study shows the prospects of using graphene oxide nanopaper for the treatment of dental and gum diseases caused by bacteria.
The article by Dr. Tan and his colleagues Killing Dental Pathogens Using Antibacterial Graphene Oxide is published in the latest issue of the journal Applied Materials & Interfaces.
Snapshot from ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces – VM
More recently, scientists from the University of Manchester have discovered another amazing and important property of graphene for medicine. The authors found out that graphene oxide is capable of destroying cancer stem cells. Moreover, again, as in the case of pathogenic bacteria, this substance acts targeted, without affecting healthy cells.
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