Biofilm on wound surfaces hamper wound healing, and may even deteriorate the wound condition. Current treatments are typically prophylactic and involve cytotoxic silver, and yet they do not remove bacterial debris. We have developed a biocompatible, biofilm-debriding hydrogel that is able to achieve more than 99.9% killing of wound biofilms such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CR-PA) and Acinetobacter baumannii in a murine excisional wound infection model. Silver-based wound dressings (controls) showed almost no killing of MRSA and CR-PA biofilms. This debridement effect is largely due to the high water swellability and microporosity of the hydrogel, which harnesses hydrodynamic drag of the hydrogel and draws bacteria away from the wound site into the hydrogel. The hydrogel is cross-linked by UV irradiation of polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate and star cationic polyethylenimine (PEI). Bacteria will be contact-killed by the cationic pore walls of the hydrogel. The hydrogel also degrades in the presence of infection-related enzymes, releasing the star cationic PEI into the infection site to contact-kill bacteria there. This hydrogel greatly reduces wound bioburden and its associated inflammations, and promotes wound healing.

Hydrogel effects rapid biofilm debridement with ex-situ contact-kill to eliminate multidrug resistant bacteria in vivo

2019 Spring National Meeting

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