Dual Antibacterial Hydrogel Adhesives (DAHAD) project consists in the development of novel alternatives for skin closure applications, combining biomedical adhesives with smart drug delivery systems. This international and interdisciplinary research project, within the field of materials chemistry, encompass three entities: the Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón (CSIC-UZ, Spain), the Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain) and Purdue University (US).
Nowadays, closure techniques typically employed in medical surgery, such as sutures, staples or screws, still remain highly invasive, painful and may be prone to infections. Surgical site infections are indeed the second most frequent type of nosocomial infections leading to prolonged hospitalization, morbidity and even mortality. Several skin adhesives such as Dermabond or Tisseel have been developed but their limited properties or toxicity are hampering a wider implementation. The main challenges that need to be addressed in order to spread the use of surgical adhesives is to develop adhesives capable to stick organs in a wet environment where physiological medium and blood are present while being fully biocompatible. Moreover, by incorporating drug delivery capability into such adhesives, infections, inflammation and/or pain for examples, could be treated locally and more efficiently reducing the risks associated with surgical trauma.
Within this context and following biomimetics insights, previously published works described the design of new adhesive materials containing mussel-inspired catechol moieties have been designed. Such material showed impressive adhesion in wet conditions and delightful results in biological adhesion, being able to glue several tissues in vitro and in vivo. Within DAHAD project, novel adhesive macromolecules containing catechol groups will be synthesized using a molecular design that combines linear and hyperbranched architectures for improved properties. The influence of such design on the adhesion will be assessed. Then, the same macromolecules will be used to prepare hydrogels with both adhesive and antibacterial properties. Adhesion will be tested on skin and antibacterial activity will be tested against the following bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Finally, the mechanical properties of the hydrogels will be evaluated and improved by incorporating dynamic bonds, such as H-bonding, within the hydrogel structure.
