A carboxyethyl-β-cyclodextrin polymer and a defensin derived peptide complex with wound healing potential

Nowadays, wound management represents a major medical issue for patients with chronic and autoimmune disease due to several complications associated with pro-inflammatory milieu and bacterial accumulation [1]. Recent advances for effective wound healing consist in the fabrication of biomaterials-based dressing [2] and the therapeutic effectiveness of small peptides is being strongly emerging [3]. In this work a water soluble 6-deoxy-6-(2-carboxyethyl)thio-β-cyclodextrin polymer crosslinked with epichlorohydrin (SuBCDPS) was synthesized to include the N-terminal fragment derived from the defensin peptide. The peptide fragment was conjugated through a PEG4 bridging moiety to an adamantane scaffold (Ada-PEG4-Def) and characterized by FT-IR, CD, NMR and HPLC-mass analyses. The product showed negligible cytotoxicity up to 24 h and at 100 μM and promising scratch repair capabilities at 50 μM on human primary fibroblasts. Based upon the safety profile of SuBCDPS up to 100 μM, the SuBCDPS/Ada-PEG4-Def complex was prepared and characterized by UV/Vis spectroscopy and DLS analysis (mean hydrodynamic diameter and ζ-potential). This study is propaedeutic if future fabrication of improved medical devices for wound healing applications integrating the supramolecular adduct, are considered.