Division of Comparative Medicine and Division of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 500 Technology Square, 3rd Floor Rm 383, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
BioMEMs Resource Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA.
Sci Rep. 2020 Aug 6;10(1):13229. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-70186-9.
Manuka honey (MH) is currently used as a wound treatment and suggested to be effective in Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) elimination. We sought to optimize the synthesis of MH microneedles (MHMs) while maintaining the MH therapeutic effects. MHMs were synthesized using multiple methods and evaluated with in vitro assays. MHMs demonstrated excellent bactericidal activity against MRSA at concentrations ≥ 10% of honey, with vacuum-prepared honey appearing to be the most bactericidal, killing bacterial concentrations as high as 8 × 10 CFU/mL. The wound-healing assay demonstrated that, at concentrations of 0.1%, while the cooked honey had incomplete wound closure, the vacuum-treated honey trended towards faster wound closure. In this study, we demonstrate that the method of MHM synthesis is crucial to maintaining MH properties. We optimized the synthesis of MHMs and demonstrated their potential utility in the treatment of MRSA infections as well as in wound healing. This is the first report of using MH as a substrate for the formation of dissolvable microneedles. This data supports the need for further exploration of this new approach in a wound-healing model and opens the door for the future use of MH as a component of microneedle scaffolds.
麦卢卡蜂蜜（MH）目前被用作伤口处理剂，并被认为对耐甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌（MRSA）的消除有效。我们试图在保持 MH 治疗效果的同时优化 MH 微针（MHMs）的合成。使用多种方法合成 MHMs，并通过体外检测进行评估。MHMs 对 MRSA 表现出优异的杀菌活性，在蜂蜜浓度≥10%的情况下，真空制备的蜂蜜似乎具有最强的杀菌作用，可杀灭高达 8×10 CFU/mL 的细菌浓度。伤口愈合试验表明，在 0.1%浓度下，虽然煮熟的蜂蜜不完全闭合伤口，但经真空处理的蜂蜜有更快愈合伤口的趋势。在这项研究中，我们证明了 MHM 合成方法对于保持 MH 特性至关重要。我们优化了 MHMs 的合成，并证明了它们在治疗 MRSA 感染以及伤口愈合方面的潜在用途。这是首次报道将 MH 用作可溶解微针形成的基质。这一数据支持在伤口愈合模型中进一步探索这一新方法的必要性，并为未来将 MH 用作微针支架的组成部分开辟了道路。
