Preparation of antibacterial collagen–pectin particles for biotherapeutics

Abstract

Biomaterial microparticles have versatile applications in biomedical formulations in site specific targeting treatment due to their size. There are many types of particulate formulations available in the pharmaceutical industry. But still it is difficult to produce protein solid particles due to their high sensitivity to heat. In this study, collagen–pectin microparticles (solid aerosol) are prepared using an electrospray method under ambient temperature and pressure conditions in a single step process. Pectin is used as a stabilizing and natural antiglycation agent for diabetic wound treatment. Collagen molecules can form various structures and aggregation states in solutions. During microparticle preparation, the electrospray method might affect the particle morphology. The significance of particle morphology was investigated using various analytical techniques. The effect of acetic acid concentration was monitored by viscosity, conductivity, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic (FTIR) measurements. The surface modifications of the microparticles were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The optimized results indicate that the collagen–pectin microparticles are obtained by electrospraying collagen dissolved in 50–80% acetic acid with 0.25% NaCl. Collagen–pectin microparticles are obtained which measure less than 150 μm in size when sprayed using a 0.65 mm sized nozzle. The prepared microparticles were also tested for antimicrobial activity to ensure high efficiency use during wound infection. Thus, the collagen–pectin microparticles prepared can potentially be used as biomedical particles for clinical applications including wound healing and lung regeneration for diabetic patients.