Active antibacterial coating of cotton fabrics with antimicrobial proteins

Abstract

The prevention of bacteria colonization by immobilizing proteins with antimicrobial activity onto cotton fabrics was investigated. Such coatings have potential applications in medical dressing materials used in wound care and healing. Two antimicrobial proteins lysozyme and hydramacin-1 (HM-1) were surface immobilized through two linkers (3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES) and citric acid in the presence of the water soluble carbodiimide coupling reagent 1-cyclohexyl-3-(2-morpholinoethyl)carbodiimide metho-p-toluenesulfonate. Surface composition analysis by attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies confirmed formation of the protein-cellulose conjugates. Antimicrobial activities of the different functionalized surfaces were found to vary between APTES and citric acid directed coatings. Citric acid immobilized lysozyme treated samples demonstrated superior activity against Gram-positive Bacillus subtilis, whereas APTES immobilized HM-1 treated samples demonstrated an advantage in inhibiting the growth of Gram-negative Escherichia coli. The antibacterial activity and stability of citric acid immobilized protein fabrics following sonication, boiling and chemical treatment were noticeably higher than that of the corresponding APTES immobilized protein fabrics. The dual coating of fibers with both antimicrobial proteins afforded efficient antimicrobial activities against both bacterial species. The results suggest that coating cotton fibers with antimicrobial proteins and peptides represents a feasible approach for developing active surfaces that prohibit growth and colonization of bacterial strains and can be potentially used in medical cotton-based fabrics.

A Review on Cellulose-based Materials for Biomedicine

“…Antimicrobial peptides are attractive compared to small organic molecules used as antibiotics [137,138]. Cellulose was modified with several peptides such as gentamicin [139].…”

Antimicrobial Properties of Plant Fibers

“…Cotton fibers confirmed good to excellent antimicrobial activities, depending on the bacteria (See Table 5). Then, cotton fibers also can be combined with an antifouling or antibiofilm approach, increasing advantages for biomedical applications [111].…”

Functionalization of aminoalkylsilane-grafted cotton for antibacterial, thermal, and wettability properties

“…Thus, the strong peaks arise from cotton's C-O-C vibrations. 19 Fig. 2(B) shows the XRD patterns of pristine cotton and aminoalkylsilane graed cotton (14%) at 6 hours, 10 hours, and18 hours.…”

“…For instance, Alongi et al 17 demonstrated a hybrid phosphorus-doped silica film grafted cotton surface through sol–gel treatment to improve only thermal and fire stability properties without evaluating wettability and antibacterial properties. While Edwards et al 18 and Xu et al 19 reported citric acid and APTES grafted cotton for antibacterial activity without studying APTES's impact on wettability or flame resistance properties. Agrawal et al 6 proposed a simple, low-cost, eco-friendly method that can enhance only the durability of superhydrophobic antibacterial cotton fabrics by using fluorine-free silane coupling agents as cross-linkers.…”