In recent years, silver nanostructures have become an important subject of research in medicine. Their antimicrobial activity could be used to solve the problem of bacterial resistance to certain antibiotics. Different nanoparticles vary in their physicochemical and optical properties. Silver nanoplates can have a negative impact on bacteria through the release of silver ions, or by forming local surface plasmon resonance. The effectiveness depends on the protective polymer layer which stabilises them, but may affect their antimicrobial activity. An important factor of their effectiveness is also the environment in which they are located. The purpose of the thesis was to investigate whether the selected silver nanoplates have a negative impact on the growth of Escherichia coli and on the stability of the bacteriophage T4. In the second part of the thesis, we developed and optimised methods for staining bacteriophage T4 with different fluorescent dyes (fluorescein isothiocyanate, pacific blue and SYBR gold). The method of staining bacteriophage would allow us to easily monitor their effectiveness in interactions with bacteria.
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