Abstract
Wounds display particular vulnerability to microbial invasion and infections by pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, to reduce the risk of wound infections, researchers have expended considerable energy on developing advanced therapeutic dressings, such as electrospun membranes containing antimicrobial agents. Among the most used antimicrobial agents, medicinal plant extracts demonstrate considerable potential for clinical use, due primarily to their efficacy allied to relatively low incidence of adverse side-effects. In this context, the present work aimed to develop a unique dual-layer composite material with enhanced antibacterial activity derived from a coating layer of Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and Chitosan (CS) containing Agrimonia eupatoria L. (AG). This novel material has properties that facilitate it being electrospun above a conventional cotton gauze bandage pre-treated with 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyl-1-oxy free radical (TEMPO). The produced dual-layer composite material demonstrated features attractive in production of wound dressings, specifically, wettability, porosity, and swelling capacity. Moreover, antibacterial assays showed that AG-incorporated into PVA_CS’s coating layer could effectively inhibit Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) growth. Equally important, the cytotoxic profile of the dual-layer material in normal human dermal fibroblast (NHDF) cells demonstrated biocompatibility. In summary, these data provide initial confidence that the TEMPO-oxidized cotton/PVA_CS dressing material containing AG extract demonstrates adequate mechanical attributes for use as a wound dressing and represents a promising approach to prevention of bacterial wound contamination.
Highlights
Skin is a relatively robust protection against infectious agents [1,2], it is prone to compromise by physical damage or disease-related lesions that affect both the structure and function
The in vitro antibacterial efficiency measures of the ethanol crude extract of Agrimonia eupatoria L. (AG) against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) were found to be 1.25 and 3.75 mg/mL, respectively, Figure 1. These results suggest that the crude AG extract is less effective against Gram-negative bacteria (P. aeruginosa) compared to Gram-positive (S. aureus), albeit that only two species were studied
A similar effect was described previously by Muruzovic et al, where Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) values of 1.25 mg/mL and 0.62 mg/mL were obtained for P. aeruginosa and S. aureus, respectively [23]
Summary
Skin is a relatively robust protection against infectious agents [1,2], it is prone to compromise by physical damage or disease-related lesions that affect both the structure and function. In efforts to overcome these challenges, attention has turned to the potential use of nanofiber materials produced from naturally derived or synthetic biopolymer mixtures that undergo electrospinning, with enhanced capability to promote skin regeneration while conferring protection against bacterial infection [10,15,16]. These beneficial traits are mediated somewhat through a physical similarity of the electrospun nanofibrous membranes to the native skin extracellular matrix that promotes cell adhesion and proliferation allied with the ability to deliver therapeutic and bioactive compounds directly to the wound site [10,15,16]. The simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and versatility of the electrospinning, as well as the unique features of the produced electrospun nanofibers, make this technique attractive for wound dressing applications [10,15,16]
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