An investigation into the anti-microbial properties of bacterial cellulose wound dressings loaded with curcumin:hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin supramolecular inclusion complex An investigation into the anti-microbial properties of bacterial cellulose wound dressings loaded with curcumin:hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin supramolecular inclusion complex
Authors: Swingler Sam , Gupta Abhishek , Heaselgrave Wayne , Kowalczuk Marek , Radecka Iza 
Published: December 2019

Wounds from various sources such as burns and ulcers which have been in a prolonged state of inflammation and rubor, both exudative and non-exudative, are decidedly prone to becoming infected by various opportunistic and commensal microorganisms, both bacterial and fungal due to the warm moist environment at the wound site (Que et al.,2019). The typical approach in treating these wounds is to reduce the level of infection and inflammation, thus encouraging an appropriate environment for successful re-epithelisation resulting in faster healing of the wound.

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is an ideal material to produce wound dressings due to the intrinsic properties such as; high chemical stability, high tensile strength and flexibility, large water holding capacity, permeable to gases and liquids, and excellent biocompatibility (Gupta et al., 2016; Gupta et al.,2017, Wahid et al., 2019).

In this study, BC produced by Komagataeibacter xylinus was used as a hydrogel matrix and loaded with a well-known antimicrobial agent- curcumin encapsulated in solubility enhancing carriers, hydroxypropyl- β-cyclodextrin (CUR:HPβCD) (Abbas et al., 2019, Gupta et al., 2019). BC was loaded with 2% (w/v) aqueous CUR:HPβCD inclusion complex under constant agitation at 170 rpm at 20°C (room temperature) for 24 hours.

Antimicrobial activity was tested against two representative organisms:

Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus by disc diffusion method. We have previously reported the antibacterial activity of CUR:HPβCD-loaded BC (Gupta et al., 2019). The current study is an extension of our ongoing research where we made an attempt of testing the anti-fungal activity of CUR:HPβCD-loaded BC and compared it with anti-bacterial activity. 8mm discs were aseptically cut and placed on TSA plates seeded with overnight cultures of one of the microorganisms under investigation and incubated at 37°C for 24 hours.

The results indicated that C. albicans and S. aureus were both susceptible to CUR:HPβCD inclusion complex with an average zone of inhibition of 12.25±2.2mm and 11±1.2mm respectively (n=4, ±=SD, p <0.05). The results against S. aureus are in accordance with our previously reported findings (Gupta et al., 2019). Current findings support the wound management applications of CUR:HPβCd-loaded BC hydrogels for chronic wounds.

References

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Gupta, A., Keddie, D., Kannappan, V., Gibson, H., Khalil, I., Kowalczuk, M., Martin, C., Shuai, X. and Radecka, I. (2019). Production and characterisation of bacterial cellulose hydrogels loaded with curcumin encapsulated in cyclodextrins as wound dressings. European Polymer Journal, 118, pp.437-450.

Gupta, A., Low, W., Britland, S., Radecka, I. and Martin, C. (2017). Physicochemical characterisation of biosynthetic bacterial cellulose as a potential wound dressing material. British Journal of Pharmacy, 2(2), pp.S37-S38.

Gupta, A., Low, W., Radecka, I., Britland, S., Mohd Amin, M. and Martin, C. (2016). Characterisation and in vitro antimicrobial activity of biosynthetic silver-loaded bacterial cellulose hydrogels. Journal of Microencapsulation, 33(8), pp.725-734.

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