Probiotic cellulose: Antibiotic-free biomaterials with enhanced antibacterial activity Sabio Rodríguez, Laura González Garnica, Ana Isabel Ramírez Rodríguez, Gloria Belén Gutiérrez Fernández, José Bañuelo, Óscar Olivares, Mónica Gálvez Rodríguez, Natividad Delgado López, José Manuel Domínguez Vera, José Manuel Antibiotic-free biomaterials Bacterial cellulose Probiotic Chronic wounds This work was funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MICIU) (projects FEDER PID2019-111461GB-I00 and Ramón y Cajal RYC-2016-21042). L.S. and G.B.R.-R. acknowledge the Spanish MICIU for the predoctoral contract within the FPU program (FPU16/01360) and the postdoctoral contract within the Juan de la Cierva Program (JdC-2017), respectively. We heartily thank Prof. Manuel Martínez Bueno (Department of Microbiology, University of Granada) and Prof. Anna Roig (Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona, ICMAB-CSIC) for fruitful discussions. The authors also thank the “Unidad de Excelencia Química aplicada a Biomedicina y Medioambiente” (UGR) for funding and support. The courtesy of the scientific and technical staff of the Center for Scientific Instrumentation (CIC, University of Granada). The alarming increase of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, causing conventional treatments of bacterial infections to become increasingly inefficient, is one of the biggest threats to global health. Here, we have developed probiotic cellulose, an antibiotic-free biomaterial for the treatment of severe skin infections and chronic wounds. This composite biomaterial was in-depth characterized by Gram stain, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal fluorescence microscopy. Results demonstrated that probiotic cellulose consists of dense films of cellulose nanofibers, free of cellulose-producing bacteria, completely invaded by live probiotics (Lactobacillus fermentum or Lactobacillus gasseri). Viability assays, including time evolution of pH and reducing capacity against electrochromic polyoxometalate, confirmed that probiotics within the cellulose matrix are not only alive but also metabolically active, a key point for the use of probiotic cellulose as an antibiotic-free antibacterial biomaterial. Antibacterial assays in pathogen-favorable media, a real-life infection scenario, demonstrated that probiotic cellulose strongly reduces the viability of Staphylococcus aureus (SA) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA), the most active pathogens in severe skin infections and chronic wounds. Likewise, probiotic cellulose was also found to be effective to inhibit the proliferation of methicillin-resistant SA (MRSA). The combination of the properties of bacterial cellulose as wound dressing biomaterial and the antibacterial activity of probiotics makes probiotic cellulose an alternative to antibiotics for the treatment of topical infections, including severe and hard-to-heal chronic wounds. In addition, probiotic cellulose was obtained by a one-pot synthetic approach under mild conditions, not requiring the long and expensive chemical treatments to purify the genuine bacterial cellulose. 2024-03-13T11:07:41Z 2024-03-13T11:07:41Z 2021-04-01 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Sabio L, González A, Ramírez-Rodríguez GB, Gutiérrez-Fernández J, Bañuelo O, Olivares M, Gálvez N, Delgado-López JM, Dominguez-Vera JM. Probiotic cellulose: Antibiotic-free biomaterials with enhanced antibacterial activity. Acta Biomater. 2021 Apr 1;124:244-253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2021.01.039 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/89959 10.1016/j.actbio.2021.01.039 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Elsevier