How Functionalized Surfaces Can Inhibit Bacterial Adhesion and Viability

Abstract

Device-associated infections (DAI) remain a serious concern in modern healthcare. Bacterial attachment to a surface is the first step in biofilm formation, which is one of the main causes of DAIs. The development of materials capable of preventing or inhibiting bacterial attachment constitutes a promising approach to deal with this problem. The multifactorial nature of biofilm maturation and antibiotic resistance directs the research for multitargeted or combinatorial therapeutic approaches. One attractive strategy is the modification or the engineering of surfaces in order to provide antiadhesive and/or antimicrobial properties. Currently, several different approaches that involve physical and chemical surface modification deliver some possible alternatives to achieve this goal. The engineered surfaces can be coated with molecules capable of inhibiting the bacterial adhesion or with active agents that kill microorganisms. In addition, surfaces can also be modified in order to be stimuli-responsive, responding to a particular trigger and then delivering the consequent antimicrobial outcome. Here, we review the prevailing strategies to modify surfaces in order to create an antimicrobial surface and discuss how different surface functionalization can affect bacterial adhesion and/or viability.

Electroactive 3D Printed Scaffolds Based on Percolated Composites of Polycaprolactone with Thermally Reduced Graphene Oxide for Antibacterial and Tissue Engineering Applications

“…Another important factor in bacterial adhesion to biomaterials is the morphology of surface topography. Based on the topographic analysis of the scaffolds shown in Figure 6, the narrow and sharp peaks obtained on the PCL/TrGO scaffolds surfaces contributed to the detachment of bacteria without ES [71,72]. Spherical-shaped bacteria, such as coccus, readily adhered to the soft surfaces (R sk < 0, pure PCL scaffolds) because they were less deformable and failed to adhere to surfaces with sharp peaks, such as Bacillus bacteria (E. coli) [71,72].…”

“…Based on the topographic analysis of the scaffolds shown in Figure 6, the narrow and sharp peaks obtained on the PCL/TrGO scaffolds surfaces contributed to the detachment of bacteria without ES [71,72]. Spherical-shaped bacteria, such as coccus, readily adhered to the soft surfaces (Rsk < 0, pure PCL scaffolds) because they were less deformable and failed to adhere to surfaces with sharp peaks, such as Bacillus bacteria (E. coli) [71,72]. The assays with 3 h of ES demonstrated the bactericidal effect of the electroactive PCL/TrGO scaffolds under 30 V (DC current ≈ 90 ± 11 µA in the scaffold) during 3 h of ES using the experimental setup reported previously [73,74].…”

Recent Advances in a Polydopamine-Mediated Antimicrobial Adhesion System

“…Medical-device-associated infections have been drastically increasing in the current scenario. Surface functionalization via altering surface topography (surface roughness/wettability/surface energy), chemical modification (smart surfaces), and multifunctional surfaces (nanoform layer/antimicrobial coating using antibiotics, antimicrobial peptides: AMPs) help in combating microbial adhesion using different pathways, i.e., contact killing mechanism, electrostatic repulsion between surface and bacterial cell, rupturing cellular membrane by nanopillars, hydrophilicity block action of bacterial cell adhesins (proteins, flagella, pilli), cationic/zwitterionic moieties repel negative charge strains and bind to + ve charge strain, thus rupturing cell membrane leading to leakage of cellular matrix ( Ghilini et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Chemical moieties used for surface modifications such as cationic polymers, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), zwitterionic polymers, and quaternary ammonium compounds (QAC) have been employed to introduce antifouling, antimicrobial, and antibiofilm properties, and the resulting surfaces have been used for combating device-associated infections ( Ghilini et al, 2019 ). Gram-negative bacterial strains specifically adhere to cationic surfaces for longer time period, leading to penetration of bioactive molecules into the cell membrane via different transporter and porins.…”

Multifuncionalización de superficies de titanio con nanopartículas de plata y biomoléculas para mejorar el desempeño de dispositivos implantables

“…Es decir, con una única superficie, combinar diferentes mecanismos de ataque antimicrobiano [118]. Por ejemplo, se han desarrollado superficies de titanio que combinan AgNPs y antibióticos, produciendo un efecto antimicrobiano en dos etapas:…”