Addition of antimicrobial properties to hyaluronic acid by grafting of antimicrobial peptide

• We grafted nisin on hyaluronic acid (HA).
• We characterized nisin enriched HA by zeta potential, 1H NMR and Bradford assay.
• We elaborated gels based on modified HA.
• Polysaccharidic solutions and gels showed biocidal activity on Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus.

Nisin (an antimicrobial peptide) has been attached to hyaluronic acid (HA) to obtain an antimicrobial biopolymer under solution or gel form.Various amounts of peptide have been grafted onto HA through a controlled reaction, to obtain a covalently grafting by formation of amide bonds. The modification has been confirmed and/or quantified by zeta-potential, 1H NMR and Bradford assay. The antimicrobial activity of the modified polysaccharide was tested against Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria. In solution, modified HA exhibited a great antimicrobial property on the three tested bacterial species. Experiments then performed with hydrogels, allowed to confirm the feasibility to use nisin enriched HA as antimicrobial coating. Such a polymer is of great interest to avoid bacterial contamination in various applications as wound dressings, contacts lenses, cleaning solutions for contact lenses, cosmetics formulations, etc.

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