Bacterial cellulose-based scaffold: synthesis and surface modification for sustained rifampicin release for topic skin infections treatment

Abstract

The present work aims the production of bacterial cellulose (BC), by Komagataeibacter hansenii, and the surface modi cations by methanol treatment to produce membranes with different physical characteristics that allow the use of device for sustained release of the antibacterial drug rifampicin (RIF) with broad spectrum and bactericidal activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative species, being able to penetrate bacterial bio lms, for potential use as a dressing for the prevention or treatment of SSTIs. Here, BC produced was treated with methanol (BC-MetOH) to obtain optimized membranes for use as sustained release devices for the antibacterial RIF. The parameters evaluated were ber densities, thickness, and entanglement of BC-MetOH impregnated by RIF in methanolic solution (BC-MetOH-RIF) compared to BC-dH 2 O impregnated by RIF in aqueous solution (BC-dH 2 O-RIF) in regarding the capacity for sustained release of RIF. BC-MetOH-RIF and BC-dH 2 O-RIF were characterized by eld emission scanning electron microscopy (FEG-SEM), thermogravimetric analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The comparison between the sustained release capacity of RIF by BC-RIF-MetOH and BC-RIF-dH 2 O were analyzed by disc diffusion technique. Intermolecular interactions between RIF and BC were accounted for in water and methanol solutions using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Both FEG-SEM and MD simulations demonstrated that the interaction energy of the BC-RIF-MetOH set related to the RIF-BC is stronger in methanol solution than in water. The results obtained demonstrate that BC-RIF-MetOH can contribute to the increase of the therapeutic arsenal for bacterial infections treatment of the SSTIs.