Development and Evaluation of Alginate Membranes with Curcumin-Loaded Nanoparticles for Potential Wound-Healing Applications

Abstract

Non-biodegradable materials with a low swelling capacity and which are opaque and occlusive are the main problems associated with the clinical performance of some commercially available wound dressings. In this work, a novel biodegradable wound dressing was developed by means of alginate membrane and polycaprolactone nanoparticles loaded with curcumin for potential use in wound healing. Curcumin was employed as a model drug due to its important properties in wound healing, including antimicrobial, antifungal, and anti-inflammatory effects. To determine the potential use of wound dressing, in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo studies were carried out. The novel membrane exhibited the diverse functional characteristics required to perform as a substitute for synthetic skin, such as a high capacity for swelling and adherence to the skin, evidence of pores to regulate the loss of transepidermal water, transparency for monitoring the wound, and drug-controlled release by the incorporation of nanoparticles. The incorporation of the nanocarriers aids the drug in permeating into different skin layers, solving the solubility problems of curcumin. The clinical application of this system would cover extensive areas of mixed first- and second-degree wounds, without the need for removal, thus decreasing the patient’s discomfort and the risk of altering the formation of the new epithelium.

Gelatin-Alginate Complexes for EGF Encapsulation: Effects of H-Bonding and Electrostatic Interactions

“…GA, derived from collagen, has a net positive charge at pH below its pI of 7–9 [18], and because of its biocompatibility and biodegradability, various biomedical applications such as encapsulation, wound dressing, and biomineralization have been reported [19,20,21,22,23]. SA is a highly negative polymer with many applications in the pharmaceutical industry [24,25] and biomedical devices such as wound dressings [26,27]. In the present study, the dependence of interactions between GA and SA on the molecular weight of GA, pH, and polymer ratios were examined.…”

Double membrane based on lidocaine-coated polymyxin-alginate nanoparticles for wound healing: In vitro characterization and in vivo tissue repair

“…The presence of drugs did not significantly alter the adhesion properties of the membranes. Moreover, CS and ALG have been previously described to possess mucoadhesive properties (Ahmad et al, 2018;Guadarrama-Acevedo et al, 2019), thus excellent adhesion properties of our membranes were expected.…”

“…The mechanical properties are a parameter with significant importance since natural polymers have several limitations when compared to the synthetic ones, such as low tensile strength, elongation at break and higher flexibility (Ahmad et al, 2018;Guadarrama-Acevedo et al, 2019). Table 3 shows the mechanical properties of F3 and F4 membranes.…”

Recent advances on polymeric hydrogels as wound dressings

“…Phosphate buffer saline (PBS) could also be used to increase gelation time, since the phosphate groups in the buffer and the carboxylate groups of the alginates compete the opportunity to react with calcium ions during the gelation process, and the gelation speed can be lowered. 116 In addition, temperature is also an effective means of controlling the gelation process because of the limited reactivity of the divalent cations at low temperature. High gelation speed of alginate hydrogel is not all bad, since it is quite favorable for 3D bioprinted tissue constructs.…”