New forms of immobilized active chlorine and its potential applications in medicine

Abstract

The search for new effective means for combating pathogenic microorganisms is one of the most important tasks of modern medicine. The main reason for the need for such studies is the obvious tendency to increase of the resistance of pathogenic microorganisms to the compounds used for these purposes, observed over the past few decades. Leading international organizations recognize the problem of the evolution of «superbacteria» as a global threat to humanity. Compounds of active chlorine are extremely effective biocidal agents. However, for the number of reasons, classic chlorine-active drugs (solutions of sodium hypochlorite, hypochlorous acid, chloramines, etc.) have limited use in medicine. This work is aimed at the study of the properties of new forms of active chlorine. Technology has been developed for the chemical immobilization of active chlorine donor groups on granular and fibrous polymer carriers. Polymers have been obtained, which contain 5-20 % of the active chlorine and are highly stable. It was shown that upon contact of such polymers with a medium containing ammonium salts or impurities of protein structure, emission of active chlorine occurs in an amount equivalent to the quantity of such impurities. Methods have been developed for the express manufacture of high-purity solutions of active chlorine (hypochlorous acid, chlortaurin) by activating these polymers with special activators. High antimicrobial activity of such solutions has been proved. It was shown that the polymers themselves also exhibit high microbicidal activity. The possibility of using fibrous forms of chlorine-active polymers as an antimicrobial component of a wound dressing has been investigated. The absence of toxicity of such dressings has been proved. It has been shown that the application of dressings on uninfected wounds speeds up the healing process. The application of dressings on infected wounds prevents the progress of inflammatory processes and significantly reduces the number of pathogenic microorganisms in wound secretions. Thus, synthesized polymers with immobilized active chlorine may be promising for use in water and air disinfection systems, for detoxification of hospital effluents, the rapid production of antimicrobial solutions, as well as for the manufacture of prolonged-action antiseptic wound dressings that protect wounds from secondary infection, that is especially important for military and disaster medicine. Keywords: disinfection, antiseptics, active chlorine, immobilization, antiseptic solutions, antimicrobial activity, reparative activity, wound dressings. For citation: Toropin VM, Murashevych BV, Stepanskyi DO, Toropin MV, Kremenchutskiy HM., Burmistrov KS. New forms of immobilized active chlorine and its potential applications in medicine. Journal of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine. 2019;25(3):340–52