Multifunctional Hydrogel Dressing That Carries Three Antibiotics Simultaneously and Enables Real-Time Ultrasound Bacterial Colony Detection

Yao-Wei Yeh; Chih-Chung Huang; Wen-Shuo Kuo; Tzu-Lung Liao; Tsung-Lin Tsai; Ping-Ching Wu

doi:10.1021/acsomega.2c07806

Multifunctional Hydrogel Dressing That Carries Three Antibiotics Simultaneously and Enables Real-Time Ultrasound Bacterial Colony Detection

ACS Omega. 2023 Mar 10;8(11):10278-10287. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c07806. eCollection 2023 Mar 21.

Authors

Yao-Wei Yeh¹, Chih-Chung Huang^{1

2}, Wen-Shuo Kuo³, Tzu-Lung Liao¹, Tsung-Lin Tsai^{1

4

5}, Ping-Ching Wu^{1

2

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701401, Taiwan.
² Medical Device Innovation Center, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701401, Taiwan.
³ Center for Allergy, Immunology and Microbiome (AIM), China Medical University Children's Hospital/China Medical University Hospital, China Medical University, Taichung 404327, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Oncology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701401, Taiwan.
⁵ Center of Applied Nanomedicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701401, Taiwan.
⁶ Institute of Oral Medicine and Department of Stomatology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701401, Taiwan.

Abstract

We have developed a multifunctional hydrogel that can carry three synergistic antibiotics commonly used in clinical practice. This hydrogel was discovered to have drug encapsulation efficiencies of 94% for neomycin, 97% for bacitracin, and 88% for polymyxin B. Drug release data indicated that the release profiles of these three antibiotics were different. A swelling test demonstrated that the hydrogel absorbed liquid after the release of its antibiotics until it became saturated, which occurred within 48 h. Moreover, this hydrogel exhibited excellent antibacterial effects against Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and biocompatibility; it can thus protect a wound from microbial invasion. When the alginate hydrogel is used to cover a wound, the wound can be checked for colonization at any time using ultrasound imaging; this can thus enable the prevention of wound biofilm formation in the early stages of infection. We evaluated the hydrogel against commercially available wound dressings and discovered that these wound dressings did not have the aforementioned desirable features. In conclusion, our multifunctional hydrogel can carry three types of antibiotics simultaneously and is a suitable medium through which an ultrasound can be performed to detect the growth of colonies in wounds. The hydrogel is expected to make a valuable contribution to the prevention of wound infections in the future.