I-Corps: Improving Patient Outcomes via Surface-Tethered Peptides to Prevent Implant Infections

美国人口的老龄化和体育运动的日益普及是福尔斯和其他创伤导致骨折增加的两个最大因素。感染导致的失败率最终花费了2.5亿美元用于延长住院时间和翻修手术。美国每年植入超过200万件骨折固定器械和60万件关节假体，其中肌肉骨骼感染仍然是一个严重问题。该团队的技术将用天然产生的抗菌肽涂覆生物材料表面，以防止细菌生物膜形成，这是感染发展的第一步。利用抗菌肽代表了预防和治疗植入器械上形成的细菌生物膜的一种有前途的方法，从而消除感染并减少患者的成本、疼痛和并发症。该项目将研究基于肽的表面修饰的商业可行性，以预防和减少植入相关感染，改善患者护理和结果，并降低医疗服务提供者和保险公司的医疗费用。团队？的动机是增强生物医学设备，以更好地为病人服务，以及减少抗药性细菌的增殖。这些肽和连接体的表面化学可适于在多种表面和材料上工作，因此可用于从可植入装置到外科器械的各种生物医学应用中。该项目的预期成果是表面改性，可应用于各种表面，并解决多个行业（包括医疗，食品制备和消费品行业）未满足的需求。

The aging of the US population and increasing popularity of sports are two of the biggest factors in the increase in fractures due to falls and other trauma. Failure rates due to infections ultimately cost the US 250 million dollars in extended hospital stays and revision surgeries. There are more than 2 million fracture fixation devices and 600,000 joint prostheses implanted each year in the US, in which musculoskeletal infection remains a serious concern. The team's technology will coat a biomaterial surface with naturally produced antimicrobial peptides to prevent bacterial biofilm formation, which is the initial step in the development of infections. The utilization of antimicrobial peptides represent a promising way to prevent and treat bacterial biofilms that form on implanted devices, thus eliminating infections and reducing cost, pain, and complications for the patient.The project will investigate the commercial viability of a peptide-based surface modification to prevent and reduce implant-associated infections, improve patient care and outcomes, and reduce health care costs to providers and insurance companies. The team?s motivation is the enhancement of biomedical devices to better serve the patient as well as reduce the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The surface chemistry of these peptides and linkers can be adapted to work on multiple surfaces and materials and thus be of use in a large variety of biomedical applications from implantable devices to surgical instruments. The expected outcome of this project is a surface modification that can be applied to a wide range of surfaces and solve unmet needs in multiple industries including the medical, food preparation and consumer goods industries.