Almost two decades following the turn of the twenty-first century, antibiotic resistant bacteria continue to demonstrate an ever escalating threat within even the most advanced health care networks of the developed world. In addition to this ongoing situation, many developing nations are still afflicted with persistently high disability and mortality rates which stem from bacterial strains that have not acquired resistance, and could thus be readily treatable if an effective system for antibiotic distribution and implementation were established. With limitations ranging from resistant phenotype generation amongst pathogenic targets, to thermal stability concerns over distant transit, conventional small-molecule antibiotics face numerous shortcomings in addressing challenges with clinically acquired bacterial infections. As a new approach towards the development of consistent and reproducible aseptic surfaces, selenium nanoparticulate coatings were nucleated on numerous solid supports that are commonly employed for the construction of field hospitals. In order to mimic the diverse environments in which these stations operate, the coated surfaces were subjected to variant heating conditions and set into culture within gram positive (<i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>) and gram negative (<i>Escherichia coli</i>) bacterial strains. Bacterial localization and growth on these surfaces was initially surveyed by means of Colony Forming Unit (CFU) assay at set time scales following initial exposure. Although selenium-based nanocoatings have demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in gram positive bacteria colonization on treated surfaces, responses from gram negative bacteria are varied within an overall trend of reduction. Ongoing studies in this project are focused on determining the separate effects of geometry and chemistry along nanorough surfaces, specifically to elucidate the mechanism by which antibacterial properties are achieved, such that next-generation, nanopatterned surfaces may be developed and optimized for clinical application. Studies on bacterial phenotypic response to nanoparticulate functionalized surfaces, specifically expression pathways towards biofilm production and maintenance, will also be investigated within this work.

Engineered antibacterial nanosurfaces for field hospitals

256th National Meeting (2018)

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