In vitro evaluation of drug release and antibacterial activity of a silver-loaded wound dressing coated with a multilayer system

The goal of the study was to elaborate an antibacterial silver wound dressing covered by a protective coating that would prevent silver diffusion toward skin without losing its biocide properties. Therefore, non woven polyethyleneterephtalate (PET) textiles were pre-treated by two types of polysaccharides – chitosan and cyclodextrin – both crosslinked with citric acid by a pad/dry/cure process. Both types of resulting thermofixed textiles carrying the citrate crosslinks were then impregnated in silver solution followed by a thermal treatment and were finally coated by Layer-by-Layer (L-b-L) deposition of a polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) film consisting of anionic water-soluble poly-cyclodextrin and cationic chitosan. The influence of the process parameters was investigated in terms of silver adsorption capacity, PEM system build-up, silver kinetics of release and antibacterial activity. We demonstrate i) the utility of the intermediate thermal treatment step in the reduction of silver leakage in the polyelectrolyte solutions used in the L-b-L process, ii) that silver adsorption on the preliminary thermofixed layers did not affect the PEM system build-up, iii) the slowing down of silver release kinetic thanks to the PEM coating, iv) the preservation of the antibacterial activity despite the PEM coating.