Biomedical device-related infection (BDI) is of great concern in modern clinical and medical applications. Various approaches to combat BDI are based on two major principles: the prevention of biofoulants adhering on medical devices and the ability to eradicate biofouling once formed. To minimize the risk of BDI, an antifouling coating with bactericidal ability is highly desirable. In this work, we report on the use of polynorepinephrine (PNE) as a promising strategy to prevent BDI due to its excellent antifouling and photothermal bacterial killing capabilities. PNE coatings show superior protein resistance against a model biofoulant (bovine serum albumin (BSA)) when compared with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and polydopamine (PDA) coatings. The antifouling mechanism between BSA protein molecules and coating films is investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM). We also demonstrate that PNE-modified surfaces show remarkable bacterial killing ability against both Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative Escherichia coli bacteria after being irradiated with an 850 nm near-infrared (NIR) laser. These results indicate that PNE coatings present a highly promising candidate for biomedical antifouling applications.
Keywords: AFM; antifouling; bactericidal; photothermal; polynorepinephrine.