ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvanced Fabrication Techniques and Biomaterials for the Assembly of In Vitro Multicellular SystemsView all articles
Using silica nanoparticles to deliver antibiotics for treating Gram-positive bacterial infections in a 3D bioprinted dermal model
Provisionally accepted
Thiago Antonio Moretti de Andrade1Ariyan Suleman1
Kali Scheck1,2
Ruchi Sharma1Claire Benwood1Alexandre Brolo1
Stephanie Michelle Willerth1*- 1University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
- 2Axolotl Biosciences, Victoria, Canada
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Bacterial antibiotic resistance has emerged as a significant global threat, making it increasingly challenging to effectively treat infections in patients. Nanomedicine technologies can be implemented for targeted deliver of medications and drugs to patients. TIn this work we investigates the use of silicon silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) loaded with the Clindamycin and Tetracycline antibiotics to treat Staphylococcus epidermidis infection in a 3D bioprinted dermalskin model. SiNPs areis stable, biocompatible and can be loaded with small drug molecules like antibiotics. The SiNPs were synthesized and loaded with antibiotics. The lLoading efficiency of the SiNPs was determined by UV-Vis spectroscopy and high performance liquid chromatography. Dome-shaped fibroblasts constructs containing fibroblasts were 3D printed using a fibrin-based bioink to mimic the dermis of skin. These constructs were then inoculated with bacterial cultures labelled with green fluorescent protein (GFP) four days post printing and then treated with antibiotics-loaded SiNPs to determine their effect on bacterial growths. After the incubation phase, the bacteria were cultured in broth to determine colony forming units (CFU) count on toxin superantigens (TSA) plates containing with 10 mg/mL chloramphenicol. The CFU count of the 3D bioprinted human constructs samples treated with antibiotics wasere less significantly lower than both SiNP-treated and untreated samples. The results suggest that antibiotic releasing SiNPs can serve as a is a potentially viable alternative for more efficient treatment forof severe skin bacterial infections.
Keywords: 3D bioprinting, antibiotics, Drug delivery, Fibroblasts, Gram-Positive Bacteria, Nanomedicine, Silica nanoparticle, Skin Human Model
Received: 02 Nov 2025; Accepted: 06 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 de Andrade, Suleman, Scheck, Sharma, Benwood, Brolo and Willerth. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Stephanie Michelle Willerth
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