Impiego della tecnologia al plasma nell'immobilizzazione di lattoferricina per lo sviluppo di packaging alimentari

Plasma technologies, improving surface properties of materials without changing mass
properties, offer promising potential applications in food packaging. In this paper, the
immobilization of the antimicrobial peptide lactoferricin (LFcinB) to the surface of
polypropylene microtubes was evaluated.
Polypropylene was coated with a thin plasma deposited Ethylene/Acrylic Acid (pdEthAA) film
via Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PE-CVD) in order to obtain a surface
rich in carboxyl groups. LFcinB immobilization was obtained after pdEthAA activation
and/or galactosamine reaction. The presence of LFcinB was verified by XPS analysis while
the antimicrobial activity was assayed against Escherichia coli K12.
In accordance with XPS data, a higher antimicrobial activity was found in samples
functionalized with pdEthAA/LFcinB compared to pdEthAA/Gal/LFcinB, with a reduction of
viable cell counts up to a maximum of 1.06 log cfu/mL in the first 8 hours of incubation.
A LFcinB functionalized coating could be useful for developing an antimicrobial packaging
although PE-CVD improvement deposition needs further studies in order to increase
antimicrobial efficiency.