Preparation and Activity of Hemostatic and Antibacterial Dressings with Greige Cotton/Zeolite Formularies Having Silver and Ascorbic Acid Finishes

Authors: Edwards, Judson - Vince; Prevost, Nicolette; Hinchliffe, Doug; Nam, Sunghyun; Chang, Sechin; Hron, Rebecca; Madison, Crista; Smith, Jade; DIXON, KIRSTY - Virginia Commonwealth University; POFFENBERGER, CHELSIE - Virginia Commonwealth University; TAYLOR, MICHELLE - Virginia Commonwealth University; MARTIN, ERIKA - Virginia Commonwealth University

Submitted to: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/22/2023
Publication Date: 12/4/2023
Citation: Edwards, J.V., Prevost, N.T., Hinchliffe, D.J, Nam, S., Chang, S., Hron, R.J., Madison, C.A., Smith, J.N., Poffenberger, C.N., Taylor, M.M., Martin, E.J.,Dixon, K.J., 2023. Preparation and Activity of Hemostatic and Antibacterial Dressings with Greige Cotton/Zeolite Formularies Having Silver and Ascorbic Acid Finishes. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms242317115.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms242317115

Interpretive Summary: Uncontrolled hemorrhage is the leading cause of death on the battlefield and second leading cause of death in civilian trauma. Moreover when battlefield trauma occurs in remote parts of the world there is a high risk for infection that accompanies open trauma as a result of delays where the dressing must be kept in place for twenty four to seventy two hours. This necessitates measures for prolonged field care be taken in consideration of the design features of trauma dressings used under these conditions. Thus there is a need for hemorrhage control dressings that also prevent the onset of wound infection. The work reported in the paper focuses on the design of dressings to both control hemorrhage and prevent infection. Thus, cotton-based dressings having antibacterial activity were combined with pro-coagulant finishes that were also designed to prevent infection. To this end the paper examines the performance of antibacterial cotton nonwoven finishes combined with a pro-coagulant finish to determine the response of both gram negative and gram positive bacteria while rapidly initiating blood clotting. The results show that cotton-based hemostatic wound dressings with robust antibacterial activity can be prepared for applications to hemorrhage control and infection prevention.

Technical Abstract: The need for prehospital hemostatic dressings that exert an antibacterial effect is of interest for prolonged field care. Here we consider a series of antibacterial and zeolite formulary treatment approaches applied to a cotton-based dressing. The design of the fabric formulations was based on the hemostatic dressing TACgauze with zeolite Y incorporated as a procoagulant with calcium and pectin to facilitate fiber adherence utilizing silver nanoparticles, and cellulose crosslinked ascorbic acid to confer antibacterial activity. Infra-red spectra were employed to characterize the chemical modifications on the dressings. Contact angle measurements were employed to document surface hydrophobicity of the cotton fabric which plays a role in contact activation of the coagulation cascade. The time to fibrin formation for formulations of this study were found to be within a range characteristic of hemorrhage control dressings. The antibacterial activity of cotton based technology utilizing both citrate-linked ascorbate-cellulose conjugate analogs and silver nanoparticle-embedded cotton fibers was observed against Staphylococcus Aureus and Klebsiella pneumococcus at a level of 99.99 percent in the AATCC 100 assay. Hydrogen peroxide levels measured over a short-term up to forty eight hour period of the ascorbic acid-based fabrics were in line with the antibacterial activities.