As reports of multidrug resistant pathogens have increased, patients with implanted medical catheters increasingly need alternative solutions to antibiotic treatments. As most catheter-related infections are directly associated with biofilm formation on the catheter surface, which, once formed, is difficult to eliminate, a promising approach to biofilm prevention involves inhibiting the initial adhesion of bacteria to the surface. In this study, we report an amphiphilic, antifouling polymer, poly(DMA-mPEGMA-AA) that can facilely coat the surfaces of commercially available catheter materials in water and prevent bacterial adhesion to and subsequent colonization of the surface, giving rise to an antibiofilm surface. The antifouling coating layer was formed simply by dipping a model substrate (polystyrene, PET, PDMS, or silicon-based urinary catheter) in water containing poly(DMA-mPEGMA-AA), followed by characterization by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The antibacterial adhesion properties of the polymer-coated surface were assessed for Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) growth under static (incubation in the presence of a bacterial suspension) and dynamic (bacteria suspended in a solution under flow) conditions. Regardless of the conditions, the polymer-coated surface displayed significantly reduced attachment of the bacteria (antiadhesion effect > ∼8-fold) compared to the bare noncoated substrates. Treatment of the implanted catheters with S. aureus in vivo further confirmed that the polymer-coated silicon urinary catheters could significantly reduce bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation in a bacterial infection animal model. Furthermore, the polymer-coated catheters did not induce hemolysis and were resistant to the adhesion of blood-circulating cells, indicative of high biocompatibility. Collectively, the present amphiphilic antifouling polymer is potentially useful as a coating platform that renders existing medical devices resistant to biofilm formation.
Keywords: antibiofouling polymer; biofilms; catheters; healthcare related infection; medical devices; polymer films.