Development and biological evaluation of smart powder bandage for wound healing and dressing applications

Cutaneous wounds are one of the pressing concerns for healthcare systems globally. With large amounts of water, conventional hydrogels encounter obstacles in effectively delivering small molecules and peptides for wound healing. The surplus water content challenges the stability and sustained release of small molecules and peptides, diminishing their therapeutic efficacy. Our pioneering smart powder bandage, fabricated through freeze-drying, ensures a water content of <1 % during storage. Upon contact with wound exudate, it forms hydrogel layers, thereby optimizing the delivery of peptides. Tailored for thermosensitive peptides such as EGF, this strategy surmounts the limitations of conventional hydrogels, providing a robust platform for efficacious therapeutic delivery in wound healing applications. Developing multifunctional wound dressings with antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, hemostatic, and healing properties is essential to promote wound healing. Therefore, the current investigation reports the development of multifunctional EGF@Silnanom SPB with the above-mentioned properties to promote wound healing using silver nanomix (Silnanom) and bioactive epidermal growth factors (EGF) as active therapeutics. The characterization of smart powder bandage (SPB) revealed that Silnanom were homogeneously dispersed in the entangled polymer network. The multifunctional smart powder bandage exhibited high bacterial inhibition rates against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and rigorous hemocompatibility, cell compatibility, and in vivo studies also confirmed its biocompatibility. Furthermore, multifunctional EGF@Silnanom SPB effectively reduced pro-inflammatory markers, enhanced collagen deposition, promoted angiogenesis, and accelerated wound healing in a full-thickness mouse wound model through the sustained release of Silnanom and EGF. Additionally, the results of hemostasis analysis on the tail amputation mouse model confirmed the hemostasis properties of the EGF@Silnanom SPB. Overall, the multifunctional EGF@Silnanom SPB shows promising potential for skin wound repair, offering a potent and effective solution to the challenges posed by conventional wound dressings.