Νanomaterial-Loaded Polymer Coating Prevents the In Vitro Growth of <i>Candida albicans</i> Biofilms on Silicone Biomaterials
Alexios Tsikopoulos,
Konstantinos Tsikopoulos,
Gabriele Meroni,
Christoforos Gravalidis,
Prodromos Soukouroglou,
Athanasios Chatzimoschou,
Lorenzo Drago,
Stefanos Triaridis,
Paraskevi Papaioannidou
Affiliations
Alexios Tsikopoulos
1st Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Konstantinos Tsikopoulos
1st Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Gabriele Meroni
One Health Unit, Department of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy
Christoforos Gravalidis
Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Prodromos Soukouroglou
Laboratory of Microbiology, Hippokration Hospital, 54642 Thessaloniki, Greece
Athanasios Chatzimoschou
Lab of Infectious Diseases, Hippokration Hospital, 54642 Thessaloniki, Greece
Lorenzo Drago
Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology & Microbiome, Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, School of Medicine, University of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy
Stefanos Triaridis
1st Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, AHEPA General Hospital, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54636 Thessaloniki, Greece
Paraskevi Papaioannidou
1st Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Early failure of silicone voice prostheses resulting from fungal colonization and biofilm formation poses a major concern in modern ear nose throat surgery. Therefore, developing new infection prevention techniques to prolong those implants’ survivorship is crucial. We designed an in vitro laboratory study to include nanomaterial-enhanced polymer coating with a plasma spraying technique against Candida albicans growth to address this issue. The anti-biofilm effects of high- and low-dose Al2O3 nanowire and TiO2 nanoparticle coatings were studied either alone or in conjunction with each other using checkerboard testing. It was demonstrated that both nanomaterials were capable of preventing fungal biofilm formation regardless of the anti-fungal agent concentration (median absorbance for high-dose Al2O3-enhanced polymer coating was 0.176 [IQR = 0.207] versus control absorbance of 0.805 [IQR = 0.381], p = 0.003 [98% biofilm reduction]; median absorbance for high-dose TiO2-enhanced polymer coating was 0.186 [IQR = 0.024] versus control absorbance of 0.766 [IQR = 0.458], p 2O3 and TiO2 could further increase the existing antibiofilm potential of these nanomaterials and decrease the likelihood of localized toxicity.