Caprolactam-silica network, a strong potentiator of the antimicrobial activity of kanamycin against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains

Here, we report the fabrication of a novel epsilon-caprolactam-silica (epsilon-SiO2) network and assessed its biocompatibility and ability to improve the antimicrobial activity of kanamycin. The results of the quantitative antimicrobial assay demonstrate that the obtained epsilon-SiO2 network has efficiently improved the kanamycin activity on Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 and Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 strains, with a significant decrease of the minimum inhibitory concentration. The epsilon-SiO2 network could be feasibly obtained and represents an alternative for the design of new antibiotic drug carriers or delivery systems to control bacterial infections. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.