PLoS ONE (Jan 2023)

A new strategy to prevent biofilm and clot formation in medical devices: The use of atmospheric non-thermal plasma assisted deposition of silver-based nanostructured coatings

  • Tommaso Gallingani,
  • Elisa Resca,
  • Massimo Dominici,
  • Giuliana Gavioli,
  • Romolo Laurita,
  • Anna Liguori,
  • Giorgio Mari,
  • Luca Ortolani,
  • Eva Pericolini,
  • Arianna Sala,
  • Giulia Laghi,
  • Tiziana Petrachi,
  • Gaëlle Francoise Arnauld,
  • Luca Accorsi,
  • Rita Rizzoli,
  • Vittorio Colombo,
  • Matteo Gherardi,
  • Elena Veronesi

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 2

Abstract

Read online

In industrialized countries, health care associated infections, the fourth leading cause of disease, are a major health issue. At least half of all cases of nosocomial infections are associated with medical devices. Antibacterial coatings arise as an important approach to restrict the nosocomial infection rate without side effects and the development of antibiotic resistance. Beside nosocomial infections, clot formation affects cardiovascular medical devices and central venous catheters implants. In order to reduce and prevent such infection, we develop a plasma-assisted process for the deposition of nanostructured functional coatings on flat substrates and mini catheters. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) are synthesized exploiting in-flight plasma-droplet reactions and are embedded in an organic coating deposited through hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) plasma assisted polymerization. Coating stability upon liquid immersion and ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization is assessed through chemical and morphological analysis carried out by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In the perspective of future clinical application, an in vitro analysis of anti-biofilm effect has been done. Moreover, we employed a murine model of catheter-associated infection which further highlighted the performance of Ag nanostructured films in counteract biofilm formation. The anti-clot performances coupled by haemo- and cytocompatibility assays have also been performed.