Nitric oxide releasing alginate microspheres for antimicrobial application

The controlled release of nitric oxide (NO) is significantly crucial in the NO-related biomedical field. In the current work, the controlled release of NO from alginate microspheres was achieved through the direct impregnation of S-nitroso-N-acetyl-penicillamine (SNAP) in the gelation of sodium alginate with calcium ions. The loading rate of SNAP in alginate microspheres was obtained in a range of 0.69 %‑27.5 %. Specifically, the longest NO release time reached up to ∼93 h. Furthermore, the structure, thermal properties, and morphology were fully characterized. During the antibacterial studies, the NO-releasing spheres can produce a great bactericidal effect on Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). The alginate microspheres impregnated with 315 mg SNAP (sphere size: 2.88 mm) can effectively reduce the number of bacteria by 7 orders of magnitude with an inhibition rate up to 100 %. Therefore, we anticipated that these NO-releasing alginate microspheres would have great potential for biomedical-related applications.