PHMB-loaded PDMS and its antimicrobial properties for biomedical applications

Given the global panorama of demands in the health area, the development of biomaterials becomes irreducible for the maintenance and/or improvement in the quality of life of the human being. Aiming to reduce the impacts related to infections in the healing processes of the dermal structure, the present work proposes the development of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based membranes with the incorporated polyhexamethylenebiguanide (PHMB) antimicrobial agent. In the present study, the antimicrobial and antibiofilm properties of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films incorporated with 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5% (w/w) of polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB) were evaluated, aiming the development of a protective biomaterial that avoids cutaneous infections from the autochthonous and allochthonous microbiota. The disk diffusion of PHMB-loaded PDMS has shown the growth inhibition of Escherichia coli (ATCC 9637), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27953), Acinetobacter baumannii (ATCC 19606), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538), Staphylococcus epidermidis (ATCC 12228), Streptococcus pyogenes (ATCC 19615), Bacillus subtilis (ATCC 6633) and also yeast-like fungi Candida albicans, all microorganisms found on the epidermal surface. Likewise, the present study demonstrated low cytotoxicity of the PHMB-loaded PDMS on HaCaT and L929 cells at lower concentrations (0.1% w/w), indicating the possibility of using the developed material as a dressing for wounds, burns, and post-surgical procedures.