Novel Chronic Wound Healing by Anti-biofilm Peptides and Protease

Abstract

Chronic wounds have made a challenge in medical healthcare due to their biofilm infections,which reduce the penetrance of the antibacterial agents in the injury site. In infected wounds,the most common bacterial strains are Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.Biofilm disruption in chronic wounds is crucial in wound healing. Due to their broad-spectrumantibacterial properties and fewer side effects, anti-biofilm peptides, especially bacteriocins,are promising in the healing of chronic wounds by biofilm destruction. This study reviews theeffects of antimicrobial and anti-biofilm agents, including bacteriocins and protease enzymes asa novel approach, on wound healing, along with analyzing the molecular docking between abacterial protease and biofilm components. Among a large number of anti-biofilm bacteriocinsidentified up to now, seven types have been registered in the antimicrobial peptides (AMPs)database. Although it is believed that bacterial proteases are harmful in wound healing,it has recently been demonstrated that these proteases like the human serine protease, incombination with AMPs, can improve wound healing by biofilm destruction. In this work,docking results between metalloprotease from Paenibacillus polymyxa and proteins of S. aureusand P. aeruginosa involved in biofilm production, showed that this bacterial protease couldefficiently interact with biofilm components. Infected wound healing is an important challengein clinical trials due to biofilm production by bacterial pathogens. Therefore, simultaneous useof proteases or anti-biofilm peptides with antimicrobial agents could be a promising method forchronic wound healing.

Keywords

• antimicrobial peptides
• bacteriocin
• biofilm
• metalloprotease
• wound healing