Chitosan coated metallic nanoparticles with stability, antioxidant, and antibacterial properties: Potential for wound healing application

Metal nanoparticles (NPs) are extensively adopted in the treatment of wounds owing to their proven antibacterial activity and enhanced wound healing effects. This study is aimed at providing a simple technique of synthesis and a comprehensive report from metal-based NPs including copper, silver, gold, and selenium for wound healing. It also constitutes their application in terms of stability, antibacterial and antioxidant effects as well as cellular interactions. In this study, gold (AuNPs@CS) and selenium (SeNPs@CS) NPs are introduced as highly stable NPs that can provide antioxidant efficacy more than other NPs to reduce ROS levels in H2O2-induced NIH-3T3 fibroblast cells. These NPs exhibited antibacterial effects in Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, indicating their potential as proper antibiotics. Furthermore, our results revealed that these NPs can exert their antioxidant and antibacterial efficacy with even higher uptake in NIH-3T3 fibroblast cells for AuNPs@CS, or with the lowest uptake for SeNPs@CS. This provides an opportunity for the modification of NPs by altering their core and thus exert a different effect on the cells based on application. By enhancing the stability, antioxidant and antibacterial properties in AuNPs@Cs and SeNPs@Cs with the least toxicological risk, our concept opens new opportunities to design more efficient wound dressings.