Chitosan against cutaneous pathogens

Abstract

Propionibacterium acnes and Staphylococcus aureus are cutaneous pathogens that have become increasingly resistant to antibiotics. We sought to determine if chitosan, a polymer of deacetylated chitin, could be used as a potential treatment against these bacteria. We found that higher molecular weight chitosan had superior antimicrobial properties compared to lower molecular weights, and that this activity occurred in a pH dependent manner. Electron and fluorescence microscopy revealed that chitosan forms aggregates and binds to the surface of bacteria, causing shrinkage of the bacterial membrane from the cell wall. Of special relevance, clinical isolates of P. acnes were vulnerable to chitosan, which could be combined with benzoyl peroxide for additive antibacterial effect. Chitosan also demonstrated significantly less cytotoxicity to monocytes than benzoyl peroxide. Overall, chitosan demonstrates many promising qualities for treatment of cutaneous pathogens.

Antibacterial and Biofilm Modulating Potential of Ferulic Acid-Grafted Chitosan against Human Pathogenic Bacteria

“…The membrane integrity and change in cell morphology were further supported by SEM results which showed that majority of the CFA-treated cells increased in size with irregular morphology and altered membrane integrity. Earlier, it was reported that interaction of positively charged chitosan with the negatively charged cell membrane of bacteria causes bactericidal action [13]. However, the better bactericidal activity of CFA is observed in our study due to the synergistic antimicrobial action of ferulic acid and chitosan on multiple cellular targets in bacteria.…”

Biodegradable Chitosan Nanoparticles in Drug Delivery for Infectious Disease

“…Some studies report low molecular weight chitosan generates a higher inhibition rate against Gramnegative bacteria (i.e., E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa), while the reverse is observed with Gram-positive bacteria -with increased molecular weight generating a greater antibacterial response [26]. This finding was confirmed by another investigation, revealing that that higher molecular weight chitosan had a more pronounced impact against Gram-positive species, Proprionibacterium acnes and S. aureus, than lower molecular weights [27]. This effect was differentiated by comparing chitosan-treated S. aureus (Grampositive) and E. coli (Gram-negative); authors suggest two mechanisms for the differing inhibitory effects: in the case of Gram-positive species, chitosan is able to form a polymeric membrane on the cell surface, preventing nutrients from entering the cell and for Gram-negative species, low molecular weight chitosan Reprinted from [73] with permission from Elsevier.…”

Curcumin loaded self assembled lipid-biopolymer nanoparticles for functional food applications

“…The use of chitosan in food industry for food preservation has already been established (Vasilatos and Savvaidis 2013;Lee and Je 2013). Further, chitosan is an effective antimicrobial (Champer et al 2013), antioxidant (Yen et al 2008) and antifungal agent (Park et al 2008) which was an added advantage for intended functional food applications. Hence in our viewpoint, curcumin encapsulated in nanoassemblies generated by interactions of two different functional food ingredients might have offered added advantage to total nutritive quality of food material in addition to its increased preservative effect by antioxidant mechanism in aqueous system.…”