Manuka honey microneedles for enhanced wound healing and the prevention and/or treatment of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) surgical site infection

Abstract

Manuka honey (MH) is currently used as a wound treatment and suggested to be effective in Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) elimination. We sought to optimize the synthesis of MH microneedles (MHMs) while maintaining the MH therapeutic effects. MHMs were synthesized using multiple methods and evaluated with in vitro assays. MHMs demonstrated excellent bactericidal activity against MRSA at concentrations ≥ 10% of honey, with vacuum-prepared honey appearing to be the most bactericidal, killing bacterial concentrations as high as 8 × 10 7 CFU/mL. The woundhealing assay demonstrated that, at concentrations of 0.1%, while the cooked honey had incomplete wound closure, the vacuum-treated honey trended towards faster wound closure. In this study, we demonstrate that the method of MHM synthesis is crucial to maintaining MH properties. We optimized the synthesis of MHMs and demonstrated their potential utility in the treatment of MRSA infections as well as in wound healing. This is the first report of using MH as a substrate for the formation of dissolvable microneedles. this data supports the need for further exploration of this new approach in a wound-healing model and opens the door for the future use of MH as a component of microneedle scaffolds. Surgical site infections (SSIs) have historically been associated with increased morbidity and mortality but remain an issue in modern day healthcare. As of 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that SSIs occurred in at least 1.9% of all surgical patients; however, this number is most likely not representative of the total number of SSI cases since about 50% of SSIs occur after hospital discharge 1,2. MRSA is the most common cause of SSIs leading in an increased morbidity in patients and increased hospital charges 3,4. In a study evaluating the 90-day mortality rate in patients with SSI, it was discovered that patients with a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) SSI had a 3.40 times increased mortality rate (95% CI, 1.5-7.2) than patients infected with a methicillin-susceptible S. aureus strain 5. Given the health and economic burden attributable,

The Emerging Role of Ionic Liquid-Based Approaches for Enhanced Skin Permeation of Bioactive Molecules: A Snapshot of the Past Couple of Years

“…Still, the latest reports highlight the therapeutic potential of MNs to tackle non-healing wounds [ 27 ]. Based on the promising performance of diverse MN arrays such as Manuka honey, MNs are able to promote healing and exert potent bactericidal action against methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) [ 28 ].…”

Biomaterial design strategies to address obstacles in craniomaxillofacial bone repair

“…117 Honey in particular has been of recent focus due to its low pH and hydrogen peroxide content attributing to its antibacterial properties, and has been incorporated into hydrogels and on the surface of materials as honey-needles to kill bacteria. [118][119][120] Infection can occur during implantation of a biomaterial and remain unknown aer surgery until it is too late, and the removal of the infected biomaterial is necessary. Additionally, antibiotics do not afford the security of infection prevention they once did, therefore design of implants for CMF defects must include antibacterial properties due to the high chance of infection.…”

Therapeutic Potential of Bioactive Compounds in Honey for Treating Osteoarthritis

“…Honey has been used since ancient times as a therapeutic agent for a wide variety of clinical conditions. Its most remarkable effectiveness lies in wound healing (Frydman et al, 2020;Smaropoulos and Cremers, 2020) and treating gastrointestinal tract diseases (Bilsel et al, 2002;Miguel et al, 2017). Additionally, several studies have evaluated the effects of honey on cancer (Afrin et al, 2018b;Mohammed et al, 2020), diabetes (Sahlan et al, 2020) and dyslipidemias (Ramli et al, 2019), showing significant ameliorative effects.…”