This work examines the molecular mechanism of action of a class of bactericidal gold nanoparticles (NPs) which show potent antibacterial activities against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria by transcriptomic and proteomic approaches. Gold NPs exert their antibacterial activities mainly by two ways: one is to collapse membrane potential, inhibiting ATPase activities to decrease the ATP level; the other is to inhibit the subunit of ribosome from binding tRNA. Gold NPs enhance chemotaxis in the early-phase reaction. The action of gold NPs did not include reactive oxygen species (ROS)-related mechanism, the cause for cellular death induced by most bactericidal antibiotics and nanomaterials. Our investigation would allow the development of antibacterial agents that target the energy-metabolism and transcription of bacteria without triggering the ROS reaction, which may be at the same time harmful for the host when killing bacteria.

中文翻译：

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金纳米颗粒对大肠杆菌的作用的分子机理。

这项工作研究了一类杀菌的金纳米颗粒（NPs）的分子作用机理，这些纳米颗粒通过转录组和蛋白质组学方法显示出对耐多药革兰氏阴性细菌的有效抗菌活性。金纳米颗粒主要通过两种方式发挥其抗菌活性：一种是破坏膜电位，抑制ATPase活性以降低ATP水平。另一种是抑制核糖体亚基结合tRNA。金纳米颗粒增强了早期反应中的趋化性。金纳米颗粒的作用不包括与活性氧（ROS）相关的机制，这是大多数杀菌抗生素和纳米材料引起的细胞死亡的原因。