Combating Biofilms by a Self-Adapting Drug Loading Hydrogel

Abstract

A bacterial biofilm is one of the main reasons that many diseases are difficult to cure. Herein, a teicoplanin (TPN)-loaded self-adapting chitosan-based hydrogel (CPH) system, called TPN-CPH, was prepared by encapsulating antibacterial TPN into CPH. This TPN-CPH can effectively combat preformed biofilms in vitro of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). It has a good therapeutic effect on full-thickness cutaneous wounds in vivo of mice infected with biofilms. In addition, TPN-CPH can accelerate wound healing by self-adapting the wound and providing a moist environment. The operation process of TPN-CPH is simple, and no external stimulation such as light and heat is needed in the treatment process, making it more convenient for clinical application. Furthermore, this is a challenge to use self-adapting hydrogels to adapt the micro-size channels of biofilms. TPN-CPH provides a chitosan-based self-adapting hydrogel system for loading drugs to kill bacteria in biofilms, and thus it is promising for infection control.

Keywords: antibacterial; biofilm; drug delivery; hydrogel; self-adapting.