Poster Presentation Australian Society for Microbiology Annual Scientific Meeting 2022

Towards the Development of Novel Intelligent Antibacterial Coatings (#160)

Tahnim TS Sultana 1 , Vi Khanh VKT Troung 2 , James JC Chapman 1
  1. Applied Chemistry and Environmental Science, RMIT University, MELBOURNE, VIC, Australia
  2. College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) pose a serious issue for the global healthcare system.1 Such infections are mainly associated with sensitive medical implants including pacemakers, catheters, and prosthetic joints, manifesting as high figures in morbidity or even mortality.2, 3 These HAIs arise from the accumulation of microorganisms on medical device surfaces or cutaneous tissues as biofilms. Biofilms are intransigent and colonize any surface or implant which is non-sterile. The biofilm is irreversibly attached and therefore difficult to eradicate from the surface.4 In particular, significant efforts have been made to develop new strategies for antimicrobial materials or coatings but, due to the formation of the complex colonized biofilm and excessive use of antibiotics, most of the pathogens have developed either strong resistivity against any antibacterial action or resistance to the very drugs designed to kill the microorganism in question.5 Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop novel kill strategies including antimicrobial or antifouling agents to destroy and limit biofilm formation without any microbial resistance. Currently, metal-based nanomaterials are designated as the most promising agents as they show impressive biocidal properties and less cytotoxicity. For this reason, graphene and graphene-based nanocomposites have been used extensively for antibacterial applications owing to their unique physical and chemical abilities to interact with microorganisms.6, 7 In addition, silver nanoparticles have been widely applied due to their bactericidal efficiency and biocompatibility.8 Additionally, researchers have begun to exploit targeted and precision-based medicine, therefore, stimuli-responsive magnetic nanoparticles have attracted great attention owing to exhibit brilliant superparamagnetic properties, biocompatibility, antimicrobial activity, and recyclability.9 Our work centres on generating recyclable and synergistic graphene (Gr), iron (Fe), and silver (Ag) nanocomposite by spreading both iron oxide nanoparticles (MNPs) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on the surface of graphene oxide (GO) sheets to obtain GO-MNPS-PNIPAM-Ag as a novel multifunctional and highly effective antibacterial material and confirm its application as a novel antimicrobial surface when screened against Gram-negative and Gram-positive microorganisms.

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