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Bioactive films for the control of skin pathogens with sophorolipids from Starmerella bombicola

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Abstract

Cutaneous infections involve microbial invasion of pathogens into the skin layers and can lead to mild cases and severe life-threatening conditions. Biopolymeric films could be used to treat cutaneous infections and also meet the demand of the consumers for new biological-based products obtained from renewable sources. Sophorolipids are antimicrobial biosurfactants produced by the yeast Starmerella bombicola with great potential for application by pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The aim of this study was to produce and to characterize biodegradable films based on cassava starch, pullulan and sophorolipids for the control of skin pathogens, with and without the presence of citric acid as a crosslinking agent. Films were obtained by the casting method, and eight formulations were prepared using different concentrations of sophorolipids (0, 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0%-g/100 g polymer), with and without citric acid. The results showed that the addition of sophorolipids resulted in more opaque surfaces, forming homogeneous structures observed by scanning electron microscopy. Addition of citric acid resulted in films with higher flexibility, lower solubility and water vapor permeability values. The films containing sophorolipids in all concentrations were able to inhibit 100% of the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis. These findings lead to the possibility of developing new, sustainable, and natural antimicrobial sophorolipid films to treat bacterial skin infections.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), RHAE/CNPq Program 2021 (350351/2022-8), and the Laboratory of Spectroscopy (ESPEC) and Laboratory of X-Ray analysis (LARX) of the State University of Londrina, CNPq/RHAE program (Grant number: 424022/2021-4).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, State University of Londrina, Londrina, Paraná, Brazil

    Giovanna Amaral Filipe, Victoria Akemi Itakura Silveira, Cristiani Baldo, Suzana Mali & Maria Antonia P. Colabone Celligoi

  2. Department of Microbiology, State University of Londrina, Londrina, Paraná, Brazil

    Marcelly Chue Gonçalves & Renata Katsuko Takayama Kobayashi

  3. Department of Basic Health Sciences, State University of Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil

    Rayanne R. Beltrame Machado & Celso Vataro Nakamura

Authors
  1. Giovanna Amaral Filipe
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  2. Victoria Akemi Itakura Silveira
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  3. Marcelly Chue Gonçalves
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  4. Rayanne R. Beltrame Machado
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  5. Celso Vataro Nakamura
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  6. Cristiani Baldo
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  7. Suzana Mali
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  8. Renata Katsuko Takayama Kobayashi
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  9. Maria Antonia P. Colabone Celligoi
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Contributions

GAF contributed to conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, visualization, writing—original draft preparation, writing—review and editing. VAIS contributed to methodology, writing—original draft preparation. MCG contributed to methodology, visualization. RRBM contributed to methodology. CVN contributed to methodology, resources. GTB contributed to methodology, visualization, writing—original draft preparation, writing—review and editing. CB contributed to conceptualization, methodology, resources, writing—review and editing SM contributed to conceptualization, methodology, resources, writing—review and editing. RKTK contributed to conceptualization, methodology, resources, writing—review and editing. MAPCC contributed to conceptualization, funding acquisition, methodology, project administration, resources, supervision, writing—review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Antonia P. Colabone Celligoi.

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Filipe, G.A., Silveira, V.A.I., Gonçalves, M.C. et al. Bioactive films for the control of skin pathogens with sophorolipids from Starmerella bombicola. Polym. Bull. 80, 10809–10823 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-022-04575-7

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