Nanoscience‐Based Strategies to Engineer Antimicrobial Surfaces

Abstract

Microbial contamination and biofilm formation of medical devices is a major issue associated with medical complications and increased costs. Consequently, there is a growing need for novel strategies and exploitation of nanoscience‐based technologies to reduce the interaction of bacteria and microbes with synthetic surfaces. This article focuses on surfaces that are nanostructured, have functional coatings, and generate or release antimicrobial compounds, including “smart surfaces” producing antibiotics on demand. Key requirements for successful antimicrobial surfaces including biocompatibility, mechanical stability, durability, and efficiency are discussed and illustrated with examples of the recent literature. Various nanoscience‐based technologies are described along with new concepts, their advantages, and remaining open questions. Although at an early stage of research, nanoscience‐based strategies for creating antimicrobial surfaces have the advantage of acting at the molecular level, potentially making them more efficient under specific conditions. Moreover, the interface can be fine tuned and specific interactions that depend on the location of the device can be addressed. Finally, remaining important challenges are identified: improvement of the efficacy for long‐term use, extension of the application range to a large spectrum of bacteria, standardized evaluation assays, and combination of passive and active approaches in a single surface to produce multifunctional surfaces.

Self‐Assembled Polymeric Membranes and Nanoassemblies on Surfaces: Preparation, Characterization, and Current Applications

“…The surface was thus decorated with a reactive moiety that was able to recognize a binding site on the nanoassembly or nanoparticle. The bonding has been thus regulated via covalent attachment as in the case of the click reactions, but also via biotin/streptavidin for molecular recognition attachment or via DNA recognition . The immobilization can be performed directly on the hard support, as in the case of cyclodextrin‐based polymersomes covered by a biotin functional poly(acrylic acid), which is bonded on a streptavidin surface .…”

“…One of the main challenges in the field of medicine is to develop materials with resistance to microbial growth, which leads to compliance and infections . In the past years, the development of surfaces and composite membranes for antimicrobial applications has been under strong focus.…”

ZnO/CdS Nanocomposite: An Anti-Microbial and Anti-Biofilm Agent

“…In this regard, nanomaterials owing to their nanosized effect (higher surface to volume ratio) showed unique physical and chemical properties different from bulk materials which offer wide applications in various fields. Recently, metal nanoparticles have been reported for antimicrobial and antibiofilm activities [5]. However, semiconductor metal oxide nanostructures are better over all existing nanocomposites owing to very good property of photon absorption as well as efficient transport of photogenerated electron hole charge carriers [6].…”

Influence of Extracellular Mimicked Hierarchical Nano-Micro-Topography on the Bacteria/Abiotic Interface

“…Among the different types of patterns that can be induced on a surface, wrinkles have emerged as a way of mimicking extracellular matrices due to the possibility of the spatial distribution of smooth, regular, and anisotropic architectures [10]. The wrinkles approach mimics the surfaces found in nature [11,12] in opposition to the engineered surfaces with grooves, pits, pillars, or channels often reported in literature [13].Within the polymer materials, elastomers are preferred as most advantageous for the formation of surface wrinkles due to their low modulus of elasticity and, consequently, greater susceptibility to deformations induced by external stimuli [14,15]. The formation of wrinkled surfaces through the use of sputtering is not often reported in literature.…”

“…Among the different types of patterns that can be induced on a surface, wrinkles have emerged as a way of mimicking extracellular matrices due to the possibility of the spatial distribution of smooth, regular, and anisotropic architectures [10]. The wrinkles approach mimics the surfaces found in nature [11,12] in opposition to the engineered surfaces with grooves, pits, pillars, or channels often reported in literature [13].…”