Highly porous phosphate-based glasses for controlled delivery of antibacterial Cu ions prepared via sol–gel chemistry

Farzad Foroutan; Benjamin A. Kyffin; Athanasios Nikolaou; Jorge Merino-Gutierrez; Isaac Abrahams; Nasima Kanwal; Jonathan C. Knowles; Andrew J. Smith; Glen J. Smales; Daniela Carta

doi:10.1039/D3RA02958A

Highly porous phosphate-based glasses for controlled delivery of antibacterial Cu ions prepared via sol–gel chemistry

Farzad Foroutan,^a Benjamin A. Kyffin,

^a Athanasios Nikolaou,^a Jorge Merino-Gutierrez,^b Isaac Abrahams,

^c Nasima Kanwal,^c Jonathan C. Knowles,

^def Andrew J. Smith,

^g Glen J. Smales

^h and Daniela Carta

*^a

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK
E-mail: d.carta@surrey.ac.uk

^b School of Biosciences and Medicine, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

^c Department of Chemistry, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK

^d Division of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, University College London, London, UK

^e Department of Nanobiomedical Science & BK21 PLUS NBM Global Research Center for Regenerative Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea

^f UCL Eastman-Korea Dental Medicine Innovation Centre, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea

^g Diamond Light Source Ltd, Diamond House, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0DE, UK

^h Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und –prüfung (BAM), Berlin, Germany

Abstract

Mesoporous glasses are a promising class of bioresorbable biomaterials characterized by high surface area and extended porosity in the range of 2 to 50 nm. These peculiar properties make them ideal materials for the controlled release of therapeutic ions and molecules. Whilst mesoporous silicate-based glasses (MSG) have been widely investigated, much less work has been done on mesoporous phosphate-based glasses (MPG). In the present study, MPG in the P₂O₅–CaO–Na₂O system, undoped and doped with 1, 3, and 5 mol% of Cu ions were synthesized via a combination of the sol–gel method and supramolecular templating. The non-ionic triblock copolymer Pluronic P123 was used as a templating agent. The porous structure was studied via a combination of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS), and N₂ adsorption–desorption analysis at 77 K. The structure of the phosphate network was investigated via solid state ³¹P Magic Angle Spinning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (³¹P MAS-NMR) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Degradation studies, performed in water via Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES), showed that phosphates, Ca²⁺, Na⁺ and Cu ions are released in a controlled manner over a 7 days period. The controlled release of Cu, proportional to the copper loading, imbues antibacterial properties to MPG. A significant statistical reduction of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacterial viability was observed over a 3 days period. E. coli appeared to be more resistant than S. aureus to the antibacterial effect of copper. This study shows that copper doped MPG have great potential as bioresorbable materials for controlled delivery of antibacterial ions.

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Highly porous phosphate-based glasses for controlled delivery of antibacterial Cu ions prepared via sol–gel chemistry

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Highly porous phosphate-based glasses for controlled delivery of antibacterial Cu ions prepared via sol–gel chemistry

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