Antimicrobial peptides – Unleashing their therapeutic potential using nanotechnology

Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The AuthorsAntimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are potent, mostly cationic, and amphiphilic broad-spectrum host defense antimicrobials that are produced by all organisms ranging from prokaryotes to humans. In addition to their antimicrobial actions, they modulate inflammatory and immune responses and promote wound healing. Although they have clear benefits over traditional antibiotic drugs, their wide therapeutic utilization is compromised by concerns of toxicity, stability, and production costs. Recent advances in nanotechnology have attracted increasing interest to unleash the AMPs’ immense potential as broad-spectrum antibiotics and anti-biofilm agents, against which the bacteria have less chances to develop resistance. Topical application of AMPs promotes migration of keratinocytes and fibroblasts, and contributes significantly to an accelerated wound healing process. Delivery of AMPs by employing nanotechnological approaches avoids the major disadvantages of AMPs, such as instability and toxicity, and provides a controlled delivery profile together with prolonged activity. In this review, we provide an overview of the key properties of AMPs and discuss the latest developments in topical AMP therapy using nanocarriers. We use chronic hard-to-heal wounds—complicated by infections, inflammation, and stagnated healing—as an example of an unmet medical need for which the AMPs’ wide range of therapeutic actions could provide the most potential benefit. The use of innovative materials and sophisticated nanotechnological approaches offering various possibilities are discussed in more depth.Peer reviewe

Making Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing More Physiologically Relevant with Bicarbonate?

Azithromycin is a clinically important drug for treating invasive salmonellosis despite poor activity in laboratory assays for MIC. Addition of the main buffer in blood, bicarbonate, has been proposed for more physiologically relevant and more predictive testing conditions. However, we show here that bicarbonate-triggered lowering of azithromycin MIC is entirely due to alkalization of insufficiently buffered media. In addition, bicarbonate is unlikely to be altering efflux pump activity

3D-printability of aqueous poly(ethylene oxide) gels

Printing technologies combined with a computer-aided design (CAD) have found an increasing number of uses in pharmaceutical applications. In extrusion-based printing, the material is forced through a nozzle to form a three-dimensional (3D) structure pre-designed by CAD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the 3D-printability of biocompatible aqueous poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) gels and to investigate the effects of three formulation parameters on the 3D printing process. The impact of PEO concentration (gel viscosity), printing head speed and printing plate temperature was investigated at three different levels using a full factorial experimental design. The aqueous PEO gels were printed with a bench-top extrusion-based 3D printing system at an ambient room temperature. The viscosity measurements confirmed that the aqueous PEO gels follow a shear-thinning behaviour suitable for extrusion-based printing. Heating the printing plate allowed the gel to dry faster resulting in more precise printing outcome. With the non-heated plate, the gel formed a dumbbell-shaped grid instead of straight lines. Higher concentration and more viscous PEO gels formed the best structured 3D-printed lattices. In conclusion, the accuracy and precision of extrusion-based 3D printing of aqueous PEO gels is highly dependent on the formulation (PEO concentration) and printing parameters (printing head speed, plate temperature). By optimizing these critical process parameters, PEO may be suitable for printing novel drug delivery systems.Peer reviewe

Effects of crosslinking on the physical solid-state and dissolution properties of 3D-printed theophylline tablets

Peer reviewe

Farmaatsiaterminite lühendid

Eesti Arst 2017; 96(6):357–36

Development of a Novel Electrospun Nanofibrous Delivery System for Poorly Water-Soluble ß-Sitosterol

Electrospinning was used as a novel technique for fabricating polymeric nanofibers of a serum cholesterol lowering and poorly water-soluble plant sterol, β-sitosterol. Chitosan was used as a stabilizer/carrier polymer. The mean diameters of nanofibers ranged from 150 nm to 218 nm. β-sitosterol was in an amorphous form and homogeneously dispersed in the nanofibers. The β-sitosterol-loaded nanofibers were freely water-soluble and exhibited very short lag-time in releasing the plant sterol. The dissolution was associated with an immediate recrystallization of β-sitosterol in submicron level. In conclusion, electrospinning is a promising future technology for the formulation of poorly water-soluble plant sterols.Peer reviewe

Monitoring of antimicrobial drug chloramphenicol release from electrospun nano-and microfiber mats using UV imaging and bacterial bioreporters

New strategies are continuously sought for the treatment of skin and wound infections due to increased problems with non-healing wounds. Electrospun nanofiber mats with antibacterial agents as drug delivery systems provide opportunities for the eradication of bacterial infections as well as wound healing. Antibacterial activities of such mats are directly linked with their drug release behavior. Traditional pharmacopoeial drug release testing settings are not always suitable for analyzing the release behavior of fiber mats intended for the local drug delivery. We tested and compared different drug release model systems for the previously characterized electrospun chloramphenicol (CAM)-loaded nanofiber (polycaprolactone (PCL)) and microfiber (PCL in combination with polyethylene oxide) mats with different drug release profiles. Drug release into buffer solution and hydrogel was investigated and drug concentration was determined using either high-performance liquid chromatography, ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry, or ultraviolet (UV) imaging. The CAM release and its antibacterial effects in disc diffusion assay were assessed by bacterial bioreporters. All tested model systems enabled to study the drug release from electrospun mats. It was found that the release into buffer solution showed larger differences in the drug release rate between differently designed mats compared to the hydrogel release tests. The UV imaging method provided an insight into the interactions with an agarose hydrogel mimicking wound tissue, thus giving us information about early drug release from the mat. Bacterial bioreporters showed clear correlations between the drug release into gel and antibacterial activity of the electrospun CAM-loaded mats