Silica Nanofibers with Immobilized Tetracycline for Wound Dressing

Abstract

Local antibiotic treatment has its justification for superficial infections. The advantage of this treatment is that the antibiotic has effects on bacterial agent directly at the application site. Skin infections which are intended for the local antibiotic treatment are superficial pyoderma, some festering wounds, burns of second and third degree, infected leg ulcers, or decubitus of second and third degree. Tetracyclines are available topical antibiotics with a broad bacterial spectrum. At present, ointments containing tetracycline are also used for the treatment, which rarely can lead to skin sensitization. In this paper, a development of novel nanofibrous material with immobilized tetracycline is presented. Two different methods of immobilized tetracycline quantification onto silica nanofibers are employed. It was proven that the prevailing part of tetracycline was bound weakly by physisorption forces, while the minor part was covalently bound by NH2 groups formed by the preceding functionalization. The silica nanofibers with immobilized tetracycline are promising material for wound dressing applications due to its antibacterial activity; it was proved by tests.