High prevalence of catheter-associated infections amounts for more than 3 billion dollars annually in hospitals,1 and antimicrobial and antifouling polymer coatings on catheter surface serves as an attractive solution. Most polymer coatings for medical catheters have either antimicrobial2 or antifouling3 properties, but rarely both. Recent advances in polymer chemistry has enabled us to develop cationic polycarbonates-based coatings with both antimicrobial and antifouling properties through a polydopamine attachment layer.4 In this study, triblock polycarbonate polymers consisting of antifouling poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), antimicrobial cationic polycarbonate and a tethering functional block were synthesized and subsequently grafted onto pre-functionalized catheter surface through covalent bonding under the ambient conditions. The anchoring functional moiety was positioned at either the centre or end of the polymer block to investigate its effect on antifouling and antimicrobial properties. The results showed that the surface coated with the polymer containing the end-positioned tethering block was more hydrophilic and the most effective against both S. aureus and E. coli, resisting surface fouling for one week. Conversely, the surface coated with the polymer containing the centre-positioned tethering block demonstrated higher bacteria killing efficacy as compared to the controls without polymer coating and the former polymer-coated surface. The surface coated with the more hydrophilic polymer was also able to resist protein fouling and platelet adhesion, and all polymer-coated surfaces did not cause significant hemolysis. Therefore, this series of cationic triblock polycarbonates hold great potential as antimicrobial and antifouling coatings for the prevention of catheter-associated bloodstream infections. References1.Darouiche, R. O., Treatment of Infections Associated with Surgical Implants. New England Journal of Medicine 2004,  350 (14), 1422-1429.2.Tiller, J. C.; Liao, C.-J.; Lewis, K.; Klibanov, A. M., Designing surfaces that kill bacteria on contact. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2001,  98 (11), 5981-5985.3.Park, J. H.; Lee, K. B.; Kwon, I. C.; Bae, Y. H., PDMS-based polyurethanes with MPEG grafts: Mechanical properties, bacterial repellency, and release behavior of rifampicin. Journal of Biomaterials Science, Polymer Edition 2001,  12 (6), 629-645.4.(a) Ding, X.; Yang, C.; Lim, T. P.; Hsu, L. Y.; Engler, A. C.; Hedrick, J. L.; Yang, Y.-Y., Antibacterial and antifouling catheter coatings using surface grafted PEG-b-cationic polycarbonate diblock copolymers. Biomaterials 2012,  33 (28), 6593-6603; (b) Liu, S. Q.; Yang, C.; Huang, Y.; Ding, X.; Li, Y.; Fan, W. M.; Hedrick, J. L.; Yang, Y.-Y., Antimicrobial and Antifouling Hydrogels Formed In Situ from Polycarbonate and Poly(ethylene glycol) via Michael Addition. Advanced Materials 2012,  24 (48), 6484-6489.

Cationic triblock polycarbonates as excellent antimicrobial and antifouling coating materials for PDMS catheter surface

248th National Meeting (2014)

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