Diabetes and prediabetes affect over 100 million people in the US.¹ A significant complication of this disease is the formation of non-healing diabetic ulcers or wounds that require significant time to heal. Closure of these wounds is further hindered by infections caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens, and if not resolved, these infections often progress into deep tissue, often resulting in amputations. In this work, the antimicrobial deep eutectic solvent choline geranate farnesol (CAGE-F) was incorporated into biomaterials comprised of dermal proteins (e.g. gelatin,) via electrospinning. Previous work has demonstrated these protein biomaterials stimulate dermal healing relative to conventional wound coverings,² and incorporation of antibacterial ionic liquids/deep eutectic solvents (IL/DES) enables the dressings to resist microbial biofouling.³ Synthesis of CAGE-F was performed via salt metathesis, the resultant material chemically characterized, and potency against biofilms of various pathogenic microbes quantified. CAGE-F displayed comparable antimicrobial potency to its parent compound, choline geranate (CAGE)⁴ against twenty-four hour biofilms of the pathogenic fungus, Candida albicans. Biomaterials incorporating CAGE-F similarly enabled these materials to resist biofouling by this species as measured by a microbial corruption assay, yet the material’s ability to nucleate and allow for the proliferation of human dermal fibroblast (hDf) cells was retained. Unlike the parent compound, treatments of CAGE-F were observed to repress the expression of genes associated with pathogenicity of C. albicans which indicates the material has favorable properties for short and long-term control of diabetic ulcer infections.

References:

¹National Diabetes Statistics Report, U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA, 2017

² Machula H. et al Adv Wound Care. 2014;5:367-375.

³ Bardsley T.A. et al J. Biomed Mater Res B, 202, 109, 1271-1282.

⁴ Zakrewsky M. et alAdv Healthc Mater. 2016;5:1282-1289.