The Mould War: Developing an Armamentarium against Fungal Pathogens Utilising Thymoquinone, Ocimene, and Miramistin within Bacterial Cellulose Matrices

Sam Swingler; Abhishek Gupta; Hazel Gibson; Wayne Heaselgrave; Marek Kowalczuk; Grazyna Adamus; Iza Radecka

doi:10.3390/ma14102654

The Mould War: Developing an Armamentarium against Fungal Pathogens Utilising Thymoquinone, Ocimene, and Miramistin within Bacterial Cellulose Matrices

Materials (Basel). 2021 May 18;14(10):2654. doi: 10.3390/ma14102654.

Authors

Sam Swingler^{1

2}, Abhishek Gupta^{2

3}, Hazel Gibson^{1

2}, Wayne Heaselgrave^{2

4}, Marek Kowalczuk⁵, Grazyna Adamus⁵, Iza Radecka^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Wolverhampton School of Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Wolverhampton, Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1LY, UK.
² Research Institute in Healthcare Science, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Wolverhampton, Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1LY, UK.
³ Institute of Health, Faculty of Education, Health and Wellbeing, University of Wolverhampton, Jerome K Jerome Building, Gorway Road, Walsall Campus, Walsall WS1 3BD, UK.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Science, University of Wolverhampton, MA Building, Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1LY, UK.
⁵ Centre of Polymer and Carbon Materials, Polish Academy of Sciences, M. Curie-Sklodowskiej 34, 41-819 Zabrze, Poland.

Abstract

An increase in antifungal resistance has seen a surge in fungal wound infections in patients who are immunocompromised resulting from chemotherapy, disease, and burns. Human pathogenic fungi are increasingly becoming resistant to a sparse repertoire of existing antifungal drugs, which has given rise to the need to develop novel treatments for potentially lethal infections. Bacterial cellulose (BC) produced by Gluconacetobacter xylinus has been shown to possess many properties that make it innately useful as a next-generation biopolymer to be utilised as a wound dressing. The current study demonstrates the creation of a pharmacologically active wound dressing by loading antifungal agents into a biopolymer hydrogel to produce a novel wound dressing. Amphotericin B is known to be highly hepatotoxic, which reduces its appeal as an antifungal drug, especially in patients who are immunocompromised. This, coupled with an increase in antifungal resistance, has seen a surge in fungal wound infections in patients who are immunodeficient due to chemotherapy, disease, or injury. Antifungal activity was conducted via Clinical & Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) M27, M38, M44, and M51 against Candida auris, Candida albicans, Aspergillus fumigatus, and Aspergillus niger. This study showed that thymoquinone has a comparable antifungal activity to amphotericin B with mean zones of inhibition of 21.425 ± 0.925 mm and 22.53 ± 0.969 mm, respectively. However, the mean survival rate of HEp-2 cells when treated with 50 mg/L amphotericin B was 29.25 ± 0.854% compared to 71.25 ± 1.797% when treated with 50 mg/L thymoquinone. Following cytotoxicity assays against HEp-2 cells, thymoquinone showed a 71.25 ± 3.594% cell survival, whereas amphotericin B had a mean cell survival rate of 29.25 ± 1.708%. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of thymoquinone, ocimene, and miramistin against amphotericin B in the application of novel antifungal dressings.

Keywords: antifungal; bacterial cellulose; miramistin amphotericin b; ocimene; thymoquinone; wound dressing.