Physicochemical properties of copper important for its antibacterial activity and development of a unified model
- 16 November 2015
- journal article
- review article
- Published by American Vacuum Society in Biointerphases
- Vol. 11 (1), 018902
- https://doi.org/10.1116/1.4935853
Abstract
Contact killing is a novel term describing the killing of bacteria when they come in contact with metallic copper or copper-containing alloys. In recent years, the mechanism of contact killing has received much attention and many mechanistic details are available. The authors here review some of these mechanistic aspects with a focus on the critical physicochemical properties of copper which make it antibacterial. Known mechanisms of contact killing are set in context to ionic, corrosive, and physical properties of copper. The analysis reveals that the oxidation behavior of copper, paired with the solubility properties of copper oxides, are the key factors which make metallic copper antibacterial. The concept advanced here explains the unique position of copper as an antibacterial metal. Based on our model, novel design criteria for metallic antibacterial materials may be derived.Keywords
Funding Information
- Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (14.Z50.31.0011)
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (MU959/31)
This publication has 67 references indexed in Scilit:
- Membrane Lipid Peroxidation in Copper Alloy-Mediated Contact Killing of Escherichia coliApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2012
- Antimicrobial metallic copper surfaces kill Staphylococcus haemolyticus via membrane damageMicrobiologyopen, 2012
- Mechanism of Copper Surface Toxicity in Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci following Wet or Dry Surface ContactApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2011
- Metallic Copper as an Antimicrobial SurfaceApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2011
- Bacterial Killing by Dry Metallic Copper SurfacesApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2011
- Mechanisms of Contact-Mediated Killing of Yeast Cells on Dry Metallic Copper SurfacesApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2011
- Biocidal Efficacy of Copper Alloys against Pathogenic Enterococci Involves Degradation of Genomic and Plasmid DNAsApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2010
- Killing of Bacteria by Copper Surfaces Involves Dissolved CopperApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2010
- The iron-sulfur clusters of dehydratases are primary intracellular targets of copper toxicityProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2009
- Contribution of Copper Ion Resistance to Survival of Escherichia coli on Metallic Copper SurfacesApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2008