Potential of Manuka Honey as a Natural Polyelectrolyte to Develop Biomimetic Nanostructured Meshes

Summary

Antibiotics have long been the answer to bacterial infection, but resistance has made that answer less dependable. This study builds a delivery system for soft tissue infections with three aims: to reduce the amount of antimicrobial released and so avoid systemic side effects, to exploit naturally derived agents rather than synthetic ones, and to preserve their activity through processing. Manuka honey is used as a natural polyelectrolyte within biomimetic nanostructured coatings - an unusual role for a substance better known for its antibacterial properties alone.

Authors & Affiliations

• Elena Mancuso

  Nanotechnology and Integrated Bio-Engineering Centre (NIBEC), Ulster University, United Kingdom
• Chiara Tonda-Turo

  PolitoBIOMed Lab, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
• Chiara Ceresa

  Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Italy
• Virginia Pensabene

  School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
• Simon D. Connell

  School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
• Letizia Fracchia

  Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Italy
• Piergiorgio Gentile Corresponding

  School of Engineering, Newcastle University, United Kingdom

Linari Electrospinning Systems

Topics

Materials