In-vitro antibacterial and anti-encrustation performance of silver-polytetrafluoroethylene nanocomposite coated urinary catheters

Abstract

Background: Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) are among the most common hospital-acquired infections, leading to increased morbidity and mortality. A major reason for this is that urinary catheters are not yet capable of preventing CAUTIs. Aim: To develop an anti-infective urinary catheter. Methods: An efficient silver-polytetrafluoroethylene (Ag-PTFE) nanocomposite coating was deposited on whole silicone catheters, and two in-vitro bladder models were designed to test antibacterial (against Escherichia coli) and anti-encrustation (against Proteus mirabilis) performances. Each model was challenged with two different concentrations of bacterial suspension. Findings: Compared with uncoated catheters, coated catheters significantly inhibited bacterial migration and biofilm formation on the external catheter surfaces. The time to develop bacteriuria was an average of 1.8 days vs 4 days and 6 days vs 41 days when the urethral meatus was infected with 10 6 and 10 2 cells/mL, respectively. For antiencrustation tests, the coated catheter significantly resisted encrustation, although it did not strongly inhibit the increases in bacterial density and urinary pH. The time to blockage, which was found to be independent of the initial bacterial concentration in the bladder, was extended from 36.2AE1.1 h (uncoated) to 89.5AE3.54 h (coated) following bacterial contamination with 10 3 cells/mL in the bladder. Moreover, the coated catheter exhibited excellent biocompatibility with L929 fibroblast cells. Conclusion: Ag-PTFE coated Foley catheters should undergo further clinical trials to determine their ability to prevent CAUTIs during catheterization.

Surface-Treated Pellethanes: Comparative Quantification of Encrustation in Artificial Urine Solution

“…Surface coatings ranging from antibacterial agents to natural glucosaminoglycans have previously been shown to reduce biofilm formation and encrustations with varying degrees of success. 5 However, to date, no study has assessed the potential encrustation properties of either uncoated Pellethane TPU or Pellethane TPU with an encrustation-resistant surface coating.…”

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

“…For catheter coating research, catheter materials can have antifouling properties themselves and/or serve as a scaffold for impregnation or attachment of biocidal molecules. There are several anti-fouling catheters including those coated with hydrogels (most popular) [27,28], poly(tetrafluoroethylene) [34][35][36][37][38], polyzwitterions [39][40][41], and poly(ethylene glycol) [42][43][44][45][46]. Furthermore, surface topography modification [47][48][49][50] and enzymes-immobilized coatings [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] have been explored for prevention of microbial colonization and biofilm formation.…”

“…PTFE-coated catheters, also known as Teflon-coated catheters, are commercially available from Bard Medical. Teflon has excellent non-stick properties via a low coefficient of friction, making it an optimal candidate for resisting bacterial colonization [34]; however, despite their desirable properties clinical data have shown that other coatings are better at preventing blockage and biofilm formation. For example, a clinical trial looking at the difference in blockage between (1) commercially available silicone, (2) silicone-coated, (3) teflon-coated, and (4) latex catheters that were placed for 14 days showed the silicone catheter had significantly lower blockage over latex and teflon-coated catheters [35].…”

“…Silver ions are the most popular clinically tested and available coating for urinary catheters yet the effectiveness of them is still debatable due to vast differences in outcomes in vitro, in animal models and in clinical trials studies [34,51,[72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86]. The mechanisms by which silver is toxic to bacteria include disruption of the membrane, proteins, and by inducing oxidative stress through the release of silver ions into the bladder [15].…”

Robust Low Friction Antibiotic Coating of Urethral Catheters Using a Catechol-Functionalized Polymeric Hydrogel Film

“…Overtime, the interaction between biofilm and urine leads to mineral precipitation around the catheters that may cause blockage of the inner lumen and demand medical attentions (Donlan, 2001;Wang et al, 2019). Eradication of biofilm after its formation is practically impossible to achieve due to increased risk of polymicrobial infection and the multiplied population's resistance to antibiotics (Singha et al, 2017).…”