A team of researchers from the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona of the Spanish National Research Council (ICMAB-CSIC) has successfully chemically modified thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), a material used in medical devices, allowing it to have antibacterial properties and prevent infections associated with biomedical implants.
«This advancement could represent a change in the prevention of infections in medical implants, reducing complications and improving patient safety,» stated Imma Ratera, the researcher from the Nanomol-Bio group at ICMAB-CSIC and CIBER-BBN, and leader of the study.
The study, published in the journal ‘ACS Applied Bio Materials’, demonstrates how the chemical modification of the TPU surface and the strategy of monolayer assembled molecules are key to enabling the anchoring of the human recombinant protein a-defensin 5 (HD5), promoting interaction with the antimicrobial protein and effectively inhibiting the formation of bacterial biofilms.
The surface modification of this material was achieved through a process of TPU activation with hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI), interfacial reaction with polyethylene glycol (PEG) derivatives, and a click reaction between the assembled monolayer with PEG-maleimide termination and the HD5 protein.
The material has also been characterized using advanced surface science techniques, confirming a «significant» reduction in the formation of biofilms of resistant gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, such as ‘Pseudomonas aeruginosa’, methicillin-resistant ‘Staphylococcus aureus’, and methicillin-resistant ‘Staphylococcus epidermidis’.
This technology will offer a «promising alternative» to antibiotics and metals like silver, addressing the issue of antimicrobial resistance in implantable medical devices, and opening up new avenues for the development of antimicrobial surfaces in these devices, with great potential to improve clinical outcomes and reduce healthcare costs associated with hospital-acquired infections.
The research is part of a project funded by La Marató de TV3 and has been carried out by researchers from ICMAB-CSIC and the Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials, and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), in collaboration with the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), the Clínic Hospital-Institute of Biomedical Research August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), the Biomedical Research Networking Center in Infectious Diseases (CIBER-INFEC), and the Parc Taulí University Hospital.