Bacterial Biofilm Formation Using PCL/Curcumin Electrospun Fibers and Its Potential Use for Biotechnological Applications

Abstract

Electrospun nanofibers are used for many applications due to their large surface area, mechanical properties, and bioactivity. Bacterial biofilms are the cause of numerous problems in biomedical devices and in the food industry. On the other hand, these bacterial biofilms can produce interesting metabolites. Hence, the objective of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of poly (Ɛ- caprolactone)/Curcumin (PCL/CUR) nanofibers to promote bacterial biofilm formation. These scaffolds were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which showed homogeneous fibers with diameters between 441–557 nm; thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (TGA and DSC) demonstrated high temperature resilience with degradation temperatures over >350 °C; FTIR and 1H-NMR serve as evidence of CUR incorporation in the PCL fibers. PCL/CUR scaffolds successfully promoted the formation of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. These results will be valuable in the study of controlled harvesting of pathogenic biofilms as well as in metabolites production for biotechnological purposes.

Comparative Study of Polycaprolactone Electrospun Fibers and Casting Films Enriched with Carbon and Nitrogen Sources and Their Potential Use in Water Bioremediation

“…In this work, a 13% solution of PCL in THF was prepared. Similar concentrations have been previously reported for the successful preparation of fibers [ 56 , 57 , 68 ]. Moreover, studies have reported that chloroform, as well as THF, have been used to successfully electrospun PCL fibers.…”

“…In this work, PCL fibers were chosen to be enriched with carbon and nitrogen sources, as PCL fibers have been reported to have a minimal effect on bacterial cell growth [ 17 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 ]. From the tested bacteria in this study, PCL fibers did not elicit any decrease in cell growth for P. aeruginosa ( Figure 5 ), as observed in a previous report, where the cell growth of P. aeruginosa and S. epidermidis was not affected with PCL fibers after 6 h of incubation [ 17 ].…”

In-Vitro Antibacterial Activity of Curcumin-Loaded Nanofibers Based on Hyaluronic Acid against Multidrug-Resistant ESKAPE Pathogens

“…This effect may be associated with the filling nature of curcumin as an additional component in the spinning solution. The increase in the average diameter after curcumin incorporation has also been demonstrated in previous studies [49][50][51].…”

Electrospun curcumin-loaded polymer nanofibers: solution recipes, process parameters, properties, and biological activities

“…The next study describes the effectiveness of electrospun curcumin-loaded PCL homogeneous nanofibers with diameters ranging from 441 to 557 nm to support the formation of bacterial biofilm. 32 Interestingly, the authors used a solution preparation method different from the other studies: curcumin was preliminarily dissolved in ethanol with further addition into 10% PCL chloroform solution at various proportions (from 2.0 to 10.0% v/v). As a result, the nanofibers obtained allow the prevention of pathogenic biofilm formation caused by the three bacteria strains: Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli .…”