Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance poses a growing threat to public health globally. Multidrug resistant Pseudomonas (P.) aeruginosa is detected in many infected wounds and is very challenging to treat with antibiotics. An alternative to antibiotics is to use bacteriophages, highly specific viruses able to kill even resistant bacteria. This work incorporates anti-P. aeruginosa Neko phages into monoaxial and coaxial electrospun fibers to explore their potential for treating infected wounds. Phages are blended with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution and either processed directly into fibers or used as the core in coaxial electrospinning with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and PVP/ethyl cellulose (EC) shell solutions. Coaxial fibers stored at -20 °C show promising stability results, with negligible phage titer loss after 6 months of storage. Phage release can be controlled by varying the shell composition. Coaxial fibers with PVP as the shell (PVA/Su PVP + phage) demonstrate immediate release while fibers with PVP/EC as the shell (PVA/Su PVP/EC + phage) display extended-release. The antibacterial efficacy of phage lysate and phage-loaded fibers is studied by isothermal calorimetry and found to be unaffected by electrospinning. Thus, it appears that phage-loaded electrospun fibers merit further investigation as potential wound dressing materials.