Peptide-ionic liquid conjugates towards the treatment of skin infections

The treatment of complicated skin infections, like diabetic foot ulcers and other chronic wounds, are often associated with persistent polymicrobial biofilms that delay and difficult the healing process. The most severe cases culminate in inpatient hospital admission, where infections can be exacerbated by hospital-acquired pathogens, in particular, if caused by the so-called ESKAPE pathogens, for which few efficient antibiotics are available. The current biomedical approaches to chronic wounds aim at providing both protection against multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria and a matrix scaffold, often collagen-based, to boost the reestablishment of healthy skin. Therefore, new options and new antibiotics are urgently needed and having that in mind our strategy is to use: i) antimicrobial peptides (AMP) to prevent or treat infection in the open wound; ii) collagen-inducing peptides (CBP) to induce fast healing; iii) and ionic liquids (IL) with intrinsic antimicrobial chemical permeation enhancement properties for an improved skin permeation. Through different combinations of these three types of building blocks, we aim to find a new class of active pharmaceutical ingredients suitable for topical application in the treatment of complicated skin infections. All the different conjugates designed and tested in vitro thus far will be presented. The most promising ones result from conjugation of CBP with IL, delivering a new type of conjugate with potent antibacterial, antifungal, and collagen-inducing effects on human dermal fibroblasts. Hence, these peptide-ionic liquid conjugates are promising leads towards the development of a topical formulation for the treatment of complicated skin infections.

Keywords

Skin infections Antimicrobial peptide Ionic liquid Wound healing

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/25637

Citation

Gomes, A., Bessa, L., Fernandes, I., Teixeira, C., Aguiar, L., Ferraz, R., Monteiro, C., Martins, C., Mateus, N., Gameiro, P., & Gomes, P. (2022). Peptide-ionic liquid conjugates towards the treatment of skin infections. Book of Abstracts of 5th Meeting of Medicinal Biotechnology (5MBtM) and 2nd Iberian Congress on Medicinal Biotechnology, 47. https://paginas.ess.ipp.pt/ebtm/2022/5EBTM_BookOfAbstracts.pdf