Combinatorial Polyacrylamide Hydrogels for Preventing Biofouling on Implantable Biosensors

Abstract

Biofouling on the surface of implanted medical devices severely hinders their functionality and drastically shortens their lifetime. Currently, poly(ethylene glycol) and zwitterionic polymers are considered “gold standards” for device coatings to reduce biofouling. To discover novel antibiofouling materials, we created a combinatorial library of polyacrylamide-based copolymer hydrogels and screened their ability to prevent fouling from serum and platelet-rich plasma in high-throughput. We found certain non-intuitive copolymer compositions exhibit superior antibiofouling properties than current gold-standard materials and employed machine learning to identify key molecular features underpinning their performance. For validation, we coated the surfaces of electrochemical biosensors with our hydrogels and evaluated their anti-biofouling performance in vitro and in rodent models. Our copolymer hydrogels preserved device function over multiple days and enabled continuous measurements of a small-molecule drug in vivo. The novel methodology we describe enables the discovery of anti-biofouling materials that can extend the lifetime of implanted devices.

Recent Advances in Printing Technologies of Nanomaterials for Implantable Wireless Systems in Health Monitoring and Diagnosis

“…[ 80,81 ] Other studies show coating of antibiofouling hydrogel for implantable sensors via surface modification. [ 82,83 ] Figure 4b shows a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) device in rats and pigs, which includes a four‐arm polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogel with an immobilized glucose‐responsive fluorescence dye (GF‐PEG‐gel). [ 82 ] The shortcomings of foreign body reactions were mitigated by covalently immobilizing the GF‐dye to contain a higher PEG gel content, resulting in great traceability comparable with a commercially CGM device.…”

Analytical Parameters of a Novel Glucose Biosensor Based on Grafted PFM as a Covalent Immobilization Technique

“…By comparison, passive approaches are related to the prevention of incoming fouling. Passive techniques usually imply the use of polymers or hydrogels as protective barriers [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. For example, polyhydroxyethyl methacrylate (pHEMA) is an excellent candidate for generating protective barriers against fouling because it is a hydrophilic polymer that exhibits resistance to nonspecific adhesion of proteins [ 28 , 29 , 30 ].…”

Hydrogel-coating improves the in-vivo stability of electrochemical aptamer-based biosensors

“…Against this background, we [6,[12][13][14] , followed by others [15][16][17] , have developed electrochemical aptamer-based (E-AB) biosensors, the first platform technology supporting high-frequency, invivo molecular measurement that does not rely on the intrinsic chemical or enzymatic reactivity of its targets. To achieve this, E-AB sensors employ a target binding-induced conformational change to generate an electrochemical signal ( Fig.…”