Reassessing Antimicrobial Strategies: Antibiotics Outperform Nanoparticles in Controlling Bacterial Growth

The purpose of this work was to investigate the possibility of using genetically modified E. coli as a platform for the large-scale production of metal nanoparticles (NPs) with particular morphological characteristics. Our findings defied the popular idea that nanomaterials always work better than traditional antibiotics by showing that antibiotics were more successful than nanoparticles at stopping the development of germs. Azithromycin, in particular, showed notable inhibitory zones in comparison to Ag-silver and silver nanoparticles. These results highlight the necessity of critically reevaluating the effectiveness of nanoparticles in antimicrobial applications and taking into account different approaches when intended results are not obtained. The demonstrated efficiency of conventional antibiotics underscores their ongoing significance.