Chitosan/alginate@niosome-curcumin: high-performance wound dressing with enhanced antibacterial activity

The ever-increasing costs of wound healing, particularly chronic wounds, have necessitated the exploration of new strategies. One of the latest approaches involves designing hydrogel scaffolds that incorporate lipid nanoparticles as drug carriers for sustained release. Hence, in this study, three-dimensional scaffolds were prepared by freeze-drying chitosan-alginate hydrogels incorporating niosomes loaded with curcumin (CS-ALG@Nio-Cur), and their properties were assessed both in vitro and in vivo using a mouse model. Evaluating the results of the experiments showed that the sustained release of the curcumin from the scaffold not only improved the adhesion and survival of the cells (90 %), but also demonstrated significant antibacterial properties, and anti-biofilm formation as evidenced by agar well diffusion assays, assessment of biofilm formation rates, and time-kill assays against Staphylococcus aureus. Additionally, a 50 % and 90 % decrease in wound size was observed after 3 and 10 days of placing the scaffold, respectively. Furthermore, histological studies showed a decrease in inflammation, an increase in re-epithelialization, and an increase in collagen density. Also, molecular studies showed that significant upregulation of Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) like MMP-2, MMP-13, and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) as promoting skin regenerative genes, and downregulation of IL-6 as an inflammatory gene were observed with CS-ALG@Nio-Cur treatments. These results suggest that the CS-ALG@Nio-Cur system can be a promising option for wound healing, particularly for chronically infected wounds.