A novel wound dressing consisting of PVA-SA hybrid hydrogel membrane for topical delivery of bacteriophages and antibiotics

The emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens has made the treatment of infected burn wounds even more problematical than the pre-antibiotic era. Phage therapy is now being considered a promising treatment options to fight against antibiotic resistant pathogens. Hence, we introduce a novel PVA-SA hydrogel based wound dressing system for topical delivery of bacteriophages and antibiotic to treat infected burn injuries. Hydrogel membrane provides wound healing environment while surface absorbed bacteriophages/antibiotic takes care of the local infection. Different blends of PVA and SA were crosslinked by boric acid and calcium ions to form the hydrogel membrane and assessed for ideal wound dressing properties. 1:2 blended PVA: SA membrane displayed highest swelling index, gel fraction, protein adsorption, hemocompatibility and best mechanical properties among the 3 blends studied in this study. The selected membrane was further characterised by FTIR, FESEM and TGA. Overall, self-adherent, antibacterial and biocompatible membrane was obtained as revealed by the in-vitro antibacterial assays, elution assays and cell cytotoxicity assays. The in-vivo potential was evaluated using MRSA-infected murine burn wound model revealing significant bacterial reduction, wound contraction and reduced inflammation in membrane treated groups in comparison to control group. The dual coated hydrogel membrane delivering both MR10 phage and minocycline proved to be better treatment strategy to treat the resistant burn wound infection rather than phage and antibiotic alone.