Controlled Delivery of Vancomycin from Collagen-tethered Peptide Vehicles for the Treatment of Wound Infections

Despite the great promise of antibiotic therapy in wound infections, antibiotic resistance stemming from frequent dosing diminishes drug efficacy and contributes to recurrent infection. To identify improvements in antibiotic therapies, new antibiotic delivery systems that maximize pharmacological activity and minimize side effects are needed. In this study, we developed elastin-like peptide and collagen-like peptide nanovesicles (ECnVs) tethered to collagen-containing matrices to control vancomycin delivery and provide extended antibacterial effects against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). We observed that ECnVs showed enhanced entrapment efficacy of vancomycin by 3-fold as compared to liposome formulations. Additionally, ECnVs enabled the controlled release of vancomycin at a constant rate with zero-order kinetics, whereas liposomes exhibited first-order release kinetics. Moreover, ECnVs could be retained on both collagen-fibrin (co-gel) matrices and collagen-only matrices, with differential retention on the two biomaterials resulting in different local concentrations of released vancomycin. Overall, the biphasic release profiles of vancomycin from ECnVs/co-gel and ECnVs/collagen more effectively inhibited the growth of MRSA for 18 and 24 h, respectively, even after repeated bacterial inoculation, as compared to matrices containing free vancomycin, which just delayed the growth of MRSA. Thus, this newly developed antibiotic delivery system exhibited distinct advantages for controlled vancomycin delivery and prolonged antibacterial activity relevant to the treatment of wound infections.