{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,12]],"date-time":"2026-02-12T06:13:09Z","timestamp":1770876789661,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,8]],"date-time":"2026-02-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1770508800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Pathogens"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Bacterial biofilms play a major role in delayed wound-healing and in the development of chronic, non-healing wounds. Natural, plant-based agents, which can eradicate bacterial biofilms, are alternatives to antibiotics and antiseptics in the treatment of bacterially contaminated wounds. Bacterial wound biofilms are three-dimensional and complex microbial communities. Therefore, in this study, we used a three-dimensional fibrin-gel wound biofilm (FGWB) model to compare a commonly used natural agent in wound care, hypochlorous acid (HOCl), to a combination of two natural plant-based agents, polygalacturonic acid (PG) and caprylic acid (CAP) (PG + CAP), for their abilities to eradicate resistant bacterial biofilms of common wound pathogens methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), multi-drug resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas aeruginosa, metallo \u03b2-Lactamase Escherichia coli, and Streptococcus pyogenes. PG + CAP produced a significantly greater reduction in viable organisms when compared to HOCL (p \u2264 0.05) against all tested bacterial isolates. PG + CAP was highly effective against biofilms of all resistant bacterial isolates and is a promising option that merits further study for treating chronic wounds contaminated with bacterial biofilms.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/pathogens15020188","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,9]],"date-time":"2026-02-09T09:41:02Z","timestamp":1770630062000},"page":"188","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Elevated Antibacterial Activity of a Polygalacturonic + Caprylic Acids Wound Ointment Compared with Hypochlorous Acid in a Three-Dimensional Wound Biofilm Model"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3851-9719","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bahgat","family":"Gerges","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Infection Control and Employee Health, MD Anderson Cancer Center, The University of Texas, Houston, TX 77030, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Joel","family":"Rosenblatt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Infection Control and Employee Health, MD Anderson Cancer Center, The University of Texas, Houston, TX 77030, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9758-3377","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Y-Lan","family":"Truong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Infection Control and Employee Health, MD Anderson Cancer Center, The University of Texas, Houston, TX 77030, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ying","family":"Jiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Infection Control and Employee Health, MD Anderson Cancer Center, The University of Texas, Houston, TX 77030, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Issam","family":"Raad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Infection Control and Employee Health, MD Anderson Cancer Center, The University of Texas, Houston, TX 77030, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"26","DOI":"10.1111\/wrr.12381","article-title":"Exacerbated and prolonged inflammation impairs wound healing and increases scarring","volume":"24","author":"Qian","year":"2016","journal-title":"Wound Repair Regen."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"114","DOI":"10.1038\/nrd1008","article-title":"Understanding biofilm resistance to antibacterial agents","volume":"2","author":"Davies","year":"2003","journal-title":"Nat. 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