Agarose oligosaccharide- silver nanoparticle- antimicrobial peptide-composite for wound dressing

Marine polysaccharides or oligosaccharides have potential to promote wound healing due to their biocompatibility and physicochemical properties. However, microbial infection delays wound healing process, and novel antimicrobial wound dressings are urgently needed. Here, agarose oligosaccharides (AGO) obtained from marine red algae were used as a reducing and stabilizer for green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), and further successfully connected with odorranain A (OA), one of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), to obtain a novel composite nanomaterial (AGO-AgNPs-OA). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Malvern particle size analyzer showed that AGO-AgNPs-OA was spherical or elliptic with average size of about 100 nm. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy showed that AGO-AgNPs stabilized the alpha-helical structure of OA. AGO-AgNPs-OA showed stronger anti-bacterial activities than AGO-AgNPs, and had good biocompatibility and significant promoting effect on wound healing. Our data suggest that AMPs conjugated marine oligosaccharides and AgNPs may be effective and safe antibacterial materials for wound therapy.

Automated summary

Marine agarose oligosaccharides and silver nanoparticles combined with antimicrobial peptides form a novel composite nanomaterial, which shows significant promoting effects on wound healing with strong antimicrobial activities and good biocompatibility.