Mussel-Inspired Electroactive, Antibacterial and Antioxidative Composite Membranes with Incorporation of Gold Nanoparticles and Antibacterial Peptides for Enhancing Skin Wound Healing

Abstract

Abstract Large skin wound is one of the most important health problems in the world. Skin wound repair and tissue regeneration is a complex process involving many physiological signals, and effective wound healing remains a huge clinical challenge. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a strategy to rapidly kill bacteria, promote cell proliferation and accelerate wound healing. At present, electrical stimulation (ES) is often used in clinical treatment of skin wound, which can simulate endogenous biological current of the body and accelerate the repair process of skin wound. However, a single ES strategy is difficult to cover the entire wound area, which may lead to unsatisfactory therapeutic effect. To overcome this deficiency, it is essential to develop a collaborative treatment strategy that combines ES with other treatments. In this study, gold nanoparticles and antibacterial peptides Os were loaded on the surface of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) material through the reducibility and adhesion of polydopamine (PDA), and realized the improvement of the electrical activity, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and biocompatibility of the polymer material. At the same time, this composite membrane material (Os/Au-PDA@PLGA) combined with ES was used in wound therapy to improve wound healing rate. The results show that the new wound repair material has good biocompatibility and can effectively promote cell proliferation and migration. Through the combined application of gold nanoparticles and antibacterial peptides Os, the polymer materials have more efficient bactericidal and antioxidant effects. The antibacterial experiment results showed that gold nanoparticlescould further enhance the antibacterial activity of antibacterial peptides. Furthermore, the Au/Os-PDA@PLGA compositemembrane has good hydrophilicity and electrical activity, which can provide a more favorable cell microenvironment for wound healing. In vivo studies using a full-layer defect model in rats showed that the Au/Os-PDA@PLGA composite membrane had a better therapeutic effect than the pure PLGA material. More importantly, the combination of Au/Os-PDA@PLGA composite with ES significantly accelerated the rate of vascularization and collagen deposition, and promoted wound healing, compared with non-ES controls. Therefore, the combination of Au/Os-PDA@PLGA composite membranewith ES may provide a new strategy for the effective treatment of skin wound.