Enhanced Antibacterial and Antiadhesive Activities of Silver-PTFE Nanocomposite Coating for Urinary Catheters

Abstract

Catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) presents a significant health problem worldwide and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Herein, a silver-polytetrafluoroethylene (Ag-PTFE) nanocomposite coating for catheters was developed via a facile wet chemistry method. Benefiting from the synergistic effect of Ag and PTFE, the as-prepared Ag-PTFE-coated catheter exhibited enhanced antibacterial and antiadhesive activities against two CAUTI-associated strains: E. coli WT F1693 and S. aureus F1557. Compared to the uncoated commercial silicone catheters and the Ag-coated catheters, the Ag-PTFE-coated catheters were able to reduce bacterial adhesion by up to 60.3% and 55.2%, respectively. The Ag-PTFE-coated catheters also exhibited strong antibiofilm activity, reducing biofilm coverage by up to 97.4% compared with the commercial silicone catheters. In an in vitro bladder model, the Ag-PTFE-coated catheter displayed excellent anti-infection efficacy against bacteriuria, extending the lifetime of silicone catheters from a mean of 6 days to over 40 days. The Ag-PTFE coating also showed good biocompatibility with fibroblast cells in culture, making it a prospective strategy to overcome current challenges in CAUTI.

Nanoparticles as Potential Novel Therapies for Urinary Tract Infections

“…As summary, composite materials are developed with the objective to have a synergistic effect between inorganic and organic components, making the combination of these kind of materials into nanocomposites a promising alternative for the prevention of CAUTIs, as well as UTIs treatment. Here, we also showed the tendency to develop NPs as catheters coating (Dayyoub et al, 2017;Redfern et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2019), along with some studies about innovative methods to design and develop therapy for systemic administration (Mahadevegowda et al, 2018). Also, Lim et al, suggested the use of Ag-PL-NPs by direct inoculation intro de bladder, a tendency shown in other investigators with organic and inorganic NPs, due the advantage that local administration represent (Lim et al, 2015).…”

“…The antibacterial and antiadhesive abilities of these coated catheters were evaluated against two of the most common uropathogens (E. coli and S. aureus). The anti-adhesion efficacy of Ag-PTFE composite was analyzed by fluorescence microscopy in uncoated, Ag-coated, and Ag-PTFE-coated catheters, (Zhang et al, 2019).…”

Bacteria Adhesion of Textiles Influenced by Wettability and Pore Characteristics of Fibrous Substrates

“…For example, as a preventative measure to bacterial growth on textiles, various antimicrobial treatments such as quaternary ammonium compounds, triclosan, and chitosan have been incorporated into fibers [ 9 ]; however, those materials often fail to kill every organism effectively. Biocidal nanoparticles including silver [ 10 , 11 , 12 ], copper [ 12 , 13 ], titanium dioxide [ 14 , 15 , 16 ], and zinc oxide [ 17 , 18 , 19 ] are also used, where silver is particularly effective at interfering with bacterial metabolism. However, the adverse effect of those reactive species on human cells is still obscure, and the environmental and toxicological [ 20 , 21 , 22 ] concerns about using nanoparticles still remain.…”

Urinary Catheter Coating Modifications: The Race against Catheter-Associated Infections

“…In many clinical trials, hydrogel catheters are used as the control or the standard of care catheter presumably because that was the type of catheter the hospital was using at that time [27,28]. Hydrogel catheters have being impregnated with silver molecules, bacteriophages, liposomes containing antibiotics, among others [27,60,61,[68][69][70][71]. Furthermore, hydrogel silver-coated catheters have been commonly used in hospital settings [28] but like many of the coatings discussed in this review, evidence for their efficacy is uncertain.…”