Fabrication of Biodegradable and Biocompatible Functional Polymers for Anti-Infection and Augmenting Wound Repair

Abstract

The problem of bacteria-induced infections threatens the lives of many patients. Meanwhile, the misuse of antibiotics has led to a significant increase in bacterial resistance. There are two main ways to alleviate the issue: one is to introduce antimicrobial agents to medical devices to get local drug releasing and alleviating systemic toxicity and resistance, and the other is to develop new antimicrobial methods to kill bacteria. New antimicrobial methods include cationic polymers, metal ions, hydrophobic structures to prevent bacterial adhesion, photothermal sterilization, new biocides, etc. Biodegradable biocompatible synthetic polymers have been widely used in the medical field. They are often used in tissue engineering scaffolds as well as wound dressings, where bacterial infections in these medical devices can be serious or even fatal. However, such materials usually do not have inherent antimicrobial properties. They can be used as carriers for drug delivery or compounded with other antimicrobial materials to achieve antimicrobial effects. This review focuses on the antimicrobial behavior, preparation methods, and biocompatibility testing of biodegradable biocompatible synthetic polymers. Degradable biocompatible natural polymers with antimicrobial properties are also briefly described. Finally, the medical applications of these polymeric materials are presented.

Thymol, a Monoterpenoid within Polymeric Iodophor Formulations and Their Antimicrobial Activities

“…Gauze bandages are important tools in the prevention and treatment of wounds [98][99][100][101][102][103]125]. Suitable, antimicrobial agents dip-coated on the bandage material could prevent microbial proliferation [98][99][100][101][102][103]125].…”

“…Gauze bandages are important tools in the prevention and treatment of wounds [98][99][100][101][102][103]125]. Suitable, antimicrobial agents dip-coated on the bandage material could prevent microbial proliferation [98][99][100][101][102][103]125]. Therefore, we impregnated AV-PVP-Thymol-I 2 on sterile gauze bandages and studied their morphology and composition under SEM and EDS (Figure 4, Supplementary File S4).…”

“…Sophisticated approaches to wound treatment are required to accelerate the healing process effectively while mitigating infection sources in the surrounding areas [42,43,95,[98][99][100][101][102][103]125,126]. Cotton bandages soaked with antimicrobial substances can potentially curb the proliferation of opportunistic pathogens on the wound and shorten the duration of treatment [98,101,125]. Thus, we impregnated cotton bandages (B) with the title formulation AV-PVP-Thymol-I 2 to investigate its efficacy against the studied strains (Table 5).…”

Nano-based formulations of curcumin: elucidating the potential benefits and future prospects in skin cancer

“…Biocompatibility and biodegradability are the major limitations associated with the use of polymer NPF. Studies related to nanopatterning of biodegradable polymers are hence conducted widely to overcome this limitation [82].…”

Antimicrobial Efficacy of a Vegetable Oil Plasticizer in PVC Matrices

“…Furthermore, even though biocidal surfaces may help reduce pathogen spread, their efficacy can also be affected by evaporation or removal, requiring frequent disinfection treatments, especially in high-risk areas, such as hospitals, public buildings, and transport systems. Thus, there is growing interest in developing new polymer-based formulations to counter bacterial resistance development by eradicating pathogens through a process that disrupts and bursts their membranes [ 6 ]. A major challenge with these surfaces is the buildup of dead microbes on the coatings, which can block the antimicrobial functional groups, significantly reducing their effectiveness.…”