Enhancement of Antimicrobial Activity of Alginate Films with a Low Amount of Carbon Nanofibers (0.1% w/w)

Abstract

The World Health Organization has called for new effective and affordable alternative antimicrobial materials for the prevention and treatment of microbial infections. In this regard, calcium alginate has previously been shown to possess antiviral activity against the enveloped double-stranded DNA herpes simplex virus type 1. However, non-enveloped viruses are more resistant to inactivation than enveloped ones. Thus, the viral inhibition capacity of calcium alginate and the effect of adding a low amount of carbon nanofibers (0.1% w/w) were explored here against a non-enveloped double-stranded DNA virus model for the first time. The results of this study showed that neat calcium alginate films partly inactivated this type of non-enveloped virus and that including that extremely low percentage of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) significantly enhanced its antiviral activity. These calcium alginate/CNFs composite materials also showed antibacterial properties against the Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus bacterial model and no cytotoxic effects in human keratinocyte HaCaT cells. Since alginate-based materials have also shown antiviral activity against four types of enveloped positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses similar to SARS-CoV-2 in previous studies, these novel calcium alginate/carbon nanofibers composites are promising as broad-spectrum antimicrobial biomaterials for the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Antiviral Properties of Alginate-Based Biomaterials: Promising Antiviral Agents against SARS-CoV-2

“… 70 , 71 In the field of nanocomposite materials, alginate-based nanocomposite films produced with a low content (0.1% w / w ) of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) have been studied very recently in terms of antiviral activity against the T4 coliphage viral model. 72 The results of the study showed that calcium alginate possesses antiviral activity against this nonenveloped virus and its inhibition capacity can be increased with the addition of the low percentage of CNFs. A previous study reported that incorporating this small amount of CNFs into calcium alginate films provided antibacterial activity against the life-threatening methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis .…”

“… 63 Calcium alginate with and without CNFs showed significant antiviral capacity and noncytotoxicity in human keratinocyte HaCaT cells ( Figure 9 ). 72 …”

“…*** p > 0.001; ns: not significant. Reproduced with permission under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 License from ref ( 72 ). Copyright 2021 MDPI.…”

Carbon Nanofibers versus Silver Nanoparticles: Time-Dependent Cytotoxicity, Proliferation, and Gene Expression

“…Nanotechnology is an emerging field of functional materials on the scale of nanometers at least in one dimension with a broad range of advanced applications such as medical imaging and nanomedicine [1][2][3][4]. Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) are one-dimensional, highly hydrophobic and non-polar filamentous hollow carbon-based nanomaterials (CBNs) that are cost-effective, have good electrical, thermal and mechanical properties [5,6], and show great promise in biomedical applications [7,8]. CNFs can be used to produce conductive composites [9] for biomedical approaches that require electrical stimulation [10] and are produced at a lower cost and higher purity than other CBNs such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [11].…”

Biomedical Applications of Antiviral Nanohybrid Materials Relating to the COVID-19 Pandemic and Other Viral Crises

“…Calcium alginate is well-known for its antiviral behavior against the enveloped double-stranded DNA herpes simplex virus type 1 [ 146 ]. To extend applicability of calcium alginate to non-enveloped double-stranded DNA viruses, carbon nanofibers (CNFs) have been added as a filler [ 147 ]. Recalling the promising antiviral activity of carbon nanomaterials, e.g., GO, against RNA and DNA viruses including pseudorabies virus and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, the CNF/alginate benefits from a superior, synergetic antiviral performance originated from each constituent.…”