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Killing bacteria within biofilms by sustained release of tetracycline from triple-layered electrospun micro/nanofibre matrices of polycaprolactone and poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate)

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Abstract

We report the controlled release of the antibiotic tetracycline (tet) HCl from a triple-layered electrospun matrix consisting of a central layer of poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate (PEVA) sandwiched between outer layers of poly-ε-caprolactone (PCL). These micro/nanofibre layers with tet successfully encapsulated (essentially quantitatively at 3 and 5 % w/w) in each layer, efficiently inhibited the growth of a panel of bacteria, including clinical isolates, as shown by a modified Kirby–Bauer disc assay. Furthermore, they demonstrated high biological activity in increasingly complex models of biofilm formation (models that are moving closer to the situation in a wound) by stopping biofilm formation, by killing preformed biofilms and killing mature, dense biofilm colonies of Staphylococcus aureus MRSA252. Tet is clinically useful with potential applications in wound healing and especially in complicated skin and skin-structure infections; electrospinning provides good encapsulation efficiency of tet within PCL/PEVA/PCL polymers in micro/nanofibre layers which display sustained antibiotic release in formulations that are anti-biofilm.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Damascus University for a fully funded Scholarship (to NA). We thank Ursula Potter (Confocal Microscopy) and Jo Carter (Microbiology) for skilled support, and Nicholas J. Haddington (Pharmacy) for useful discussions, all at the University of Bath. We thank Dr. Bastiaan Krom (Academic Centre for Dentistry, Amsterdam) for generously providing E. faecalis BS385.

Conflict of interest

All four authors Nour Alhusein, Paul A. De Bank, Ian S. Blagbrough and Albert Bolhuis declare that they have no conflict of interest. There were no experiments on human or animal subjects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK

    Nour Alhusein, Paul A. De Bank, Ian S. Blagbrough & Albert Bolhuis

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  1. Nour Alhusein
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  2. Paul A. De Bank
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  3. Ian S. Blagbrough
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  4. Albert Bolhuis
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Correspondence to Ian S. Blagbrough.

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Alhusein, N., De Bank, P.A., Blagbrough, I.S. et al. Killing bacteria within biofilms by sustained release of tetracycline from triple-layered electrospun micro/nanofibre matrices of polycaprolactone and poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate). Drug Deliv. and Transl. Res. 3, 531–541 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13346-013-0164-9

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