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Breathing new life into old antibiotics: Overcoming antibacterial resistance by antibiotic-loaded nanogel carriers with cationic surface functionality

Weldrick, Paul J.; Iveson, Sammi; Hardman, Matthew J.; Paunov, Vesselin N.

Authors

Paul J. Weldrick

Sammi Iveson

Vesselin N. Paunov



Abstract

Multidrug-resistant pathogens are prevalent in chronic wounds. There is an urgent need to develop novel antimicrobials and formulation strategies that can overcome antibiotic resistance and provide a safe alternative to traditional antibiotics. This work aimed to develop a novel nanocarrier for two cationic antibiotics, tetracycline hydrochloride and lincomycin hydrochloride which can potentially overcome antibiotic resistance. In this study, we report the use of surface functionalised polyacrylic copolymer nanogels as carriers for cationic antibiotics. These nanogels can encapsulate small cationic antimicrobial molecules and act as a drug delivery system. They were further functionalised with a biocompatible cationic polyelectrolyte, bPEI, to increase their affinity towards the negatively charged bacterial cell walls. These bPEI-coated nanocarrier-encapsulated antibiotics were assessed against a range of wound isolated pathogens, which had been shown through antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) to be resistant to tetracycline and lincomycin. Our data reveal that bPEI-coated nanogels with encapsulated tetracycline or lincomycin displayed increased antimicrobial performance against selected wound-derived bacteria, including strains highly resistant to the free antibiotic in solution. Additionally, our nanocarrier-based antibiotics showed no detectable cytotoxic effect against human keratinocytes. We attribute the increase in the antimicrobial activity of the cationically functionalised antibiotic-loaded nanogel carriers to specific electrostatic adhesion to the microbial cell wall delivering a higher local antibiotic concentration, confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. Such a nanotechnology based approach may enhance the effectiveness of a wide variety of existing antibiotics, offering a potentially new mechanism to overcome antibiotic resistance.

Citation

Weldrick, P. J., Iveson, S., Hardman, M. J., & Paunov, V. N. (2019). Breathing new life into old antibiotics: Overcoming antibacterial resistance by antibiotic-loaded nanogel carriers with cationic surface functionality. Nanoscale, 11(21), 10472-10485. https://doi.org/10.1039/c8nr10022e

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 24, 2019
Online Publication Date May 21, 2019
Publication Date Jun 7, 2019
Deposit Date Jun 2, 2019
Publicly Available Date May 22, 2020
Journal Nanoscale
Print ISSN 2040-3364
Electronic ISSN 2040-3372
Publisher Royal Society of Chemistry
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 11
Issue 21
Pages 10472-10485
DOI https://doi.org/10.1039/c8nr10022e
Keywords antimicrobial resistance, nanotechnology, antibiotics, polyelectrolytes, nanogels
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/1840866
Publisher URL https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2019/nr/c8nr10022e

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