An antibacterial and bioactive sponge incorporating Codium sp.-mediated biosynthesized silver nanoparticles for the management of high exudate wounds

Abstract

The antibacterial sponges with interconnected porous structure, high biocompatibility and antibacterial activity are important for wound healing applications. In this work, Codium sp. — polysaccharide based sponges incorporating silver nanoparticles biosynthesized by macroalgal biomass were produced. The biosynthesized silver nanoparticles were successfully produced through chemical reduction mediated by residual macroalgal biomass. As the main findings, the nanoparticles presented a hydrodynamic diameter of 46.10 ± 0.22 nm and a zeta potential value of −18.20 ± 1.02 mV, which remained stable for 14 days. In turn, the porous sponges based on Codium sp. polysaccharide incorporating the silver nanoparticles were obtained by freeze-drying. The produced sponges presented a controlled swelling (≈2000 % stable during at least 35 h of incubation) and biodegradation profile (sponges lost about 80 % of its weight after 5 days). Further, the sponges demonstrated to be biocompatible in contact with fibroblast cells and able to avoid microorganism growth. Overall, the results suggested the promising properties of the sponges incorporating biosynthesized silver nanoparticles to act as antibacterial and bioactive wound dressing able to absorb the excess of wound exudate, promoting cell proliferation and impairing the occurrence of a skin infection. Such evidence reinforces the properties of macroalgal-derived products to be applied in the biomedical field and the use of macroalgal biomass for the biosynthesis of metallic nanoparticles.