Gels with high drug release sustainability and intrinsic antibacterial properties are of high practical potential for
cutaneous drug administration, particularly for
wound care and
skin disease treatment. This study reports the generation and characterization of
gels formed by 1,5-pentanedial-mediated crosslinking between
chitosan and
lysozyme for cutaneous drug delivery. Structures of the
gels are characterized by using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. An increase in the mass percentage of
lysozyme leads to an increase in the swelling ratio and erosion susceptibility of the resulting
gels. The drug delivery performance of the
gels can be changed simply by manipulating the
chitosan/
lysozyme mass-to-mass ratio, with an increase in the mass percentage of
lysozyme leading to a decline in the encapsulation efficiency and drug release sustainability of the
gels. Not only do all
gels tested in this study show negligible toxicity in NIH/3T3 fibroblasts, they also demonstrate intrinsic antibacterial effects against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, with the magnitude of the effect being positively related to the mass percentage of
lysozyme. All these warrant the
gels to be further developed as intrinsically antibacterial carriers for
cutaneous drug administration.