Ricerc@Sapienza

Intracellular pathogens are a critical challenge for antimicrobial therapies. Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus)
causes approximately 85% of all skin and soft tissue infections in humans worldwide and more than 30% of
patients develop chronic or recurrent infections within three months, even after appropriate antibacterial
therapies. S. aureus is also one of the most common bacteria found in chronic wounds. Recent evidences suggest
that S. aureus is able to persist within phagolysosomes of skin cells (i.e. keratinocytes, phagocytic cells), being

The feasibility to use gellan nanohydrogels (Ge-NHs) as delivery system for the cutaneous administration of piroxicam (PRX) was investigated using gellan conjugated with cholesterol or riboflavin. The in vitro skin penetration studies through human epidermis were performed using a saturated aqueous drug solution, a 50% w/v Transcutol aqueous solution, and a commercially available PRX plaster as controls. Confocal microscopy, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, circular dichroism, and a dynamometer assisted extrusion assay were performed to clarify the permeation mechanism of Ge-NHs.