Engineering Sustainable Antimicrobial Release in Silica-Cellulose Membrane with CaCO3-Aided Processing for Wound Dressing Application

Abstract

The sustained release of antimicrobial therapeutics for wound dressing has become an attractive design strategy for prolonging the timespan of wound dressings and for reducing the risk of chronic wound infection. Recently, cellulose-based membrane has become a preferred option of wound dressings for the treatment of burn wounds and skin ulcers. In this work, novel cellulose membrane incorporated with mesoporous silica particles (SBA-15) was developed as an antimicrobial wound dressing with desirable sustained release functionality for targeting persistent bacterial pathogens. Attributed to a coated layer of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), SBA-15 particles were free from corrosion in alkaline condition during the preparation of cellulose-based composite membranes. SEM, TEM and BET results showed that the morphology, specific surface area, pore size and pore volume of pristine SBA-15 were preserved after the incorporation of CaCO3-coated SBA-15 into the cellulose matrix, while the mesoporous structure of SBA-15 was significantly disrupted without the use of CaCO3 coating. The resultant composite membranes containing 30 wt% SBA-15 (denoted as CM-Ca2-SBA(30%)) achieved 3.6 wt% of antimicrobial drug loading. Interestingly, CM-Ca2-SBA(30%) demonstrated the sustained release property of chloramphenicol for 270 h, driven by a two-stage drug release processes of SBA-15/cellulose. The water vapor permeability (WVTR) and swelling properties of composite membranes were shown to have complied with the primary requirements of wound dressing. Antibacterial assays revealed that strong antibacterial activities (144 h) of the composite membranes against Staphylococcus aureus and Eschericia coli were achieved. All results displayed that the strategy of coating silica with CaCO3 helps to obtain cellulose–silica composite membranes with desirable sustained release profiles and strong antibacterial activities. The antibacterial SBA-15/cellulose composite membranes show potential for the application of wound dressing.

Improving Fibrin Hydrogels’ Mechanical Properties, through Addition of Silica or Chitosan-Silica Materials, for Potential Application as Wound Dressings

“…Finally, fibrin mechanical reinforcement was more homogeneous with the lowest evaluated S concentration, as indicated by the smaller variation of Young's elastic modulus (Figure 4(a)). Interestingly, a similar 2-fold modulus increase was achieved with the hydrogel prepared in the presence of 0.7 mg/mL CS6 material (Figure 4(b)) compared to the increase obtained with 4 mg/mL of S. At the first glance, both CS and S are hydrophilic materials that can contribute to the maintenance of fibrin hydrogel hydration, as shown in the literature for other hydrogels [25,41,42]. However, the increase of the CS6 concentration was not advantageous for the mechanical reinforcement (Figure 4(b)).…”

Silica/Protein and Silica/Polysaccharide Interactions and Their Contributions to the Functional Properties of Derived Hybrid Wound Dressing Hydrogels

“…On the contrary, the aggregates can be breakdown points under mechanical stress, as exemplified with elastic collagen hydrogels [ 51 ]. Silica also increases the elastic behavior of the injectable cellulose and chitosan hydrogels [ 5 , 52 ] and the tensile strength of silica-cellulose membranes [ 53 ]. Another physical contribution of silica nanoparticles is related to the swelling.…”

“…It is demonstrated how the highly organized porous structure of SBA-15 mesoporous silica added during the alkaline casting and acidic recovering of cellulose films improves the swelling rate, conferring a 1012 to 1186 g·m −2 ·d −1 moisture permeability. This is into the ideal values (904–1447 g·m −2 ·d −1 ) for wound dressings [ 53 ].…”

Naturally derived nano- and micro-drug delivery vehicles: halloysite, vaterite and nanocellulose

“…The hydrogel effectively wetted the skin, improving drug penetration. An interesting approach for preparation of antimicrobial wound dressing cellulose hydrogels was proposed by Shen et al 178 They employed mesoporous silica nanoparticles SBA-15 coated with CaCO 3 to prevent their degradation during the preparation of an SBA-15/cellulose composite. The sustainable antibacterial activity against S. aureus and E. coli was figured out to be 144 h at its longest.…”