SBIR Phase I: Slowing the Spread of COVID-19: Development of Persistent Antimicrobial Compositions to Prevent Cross-Contamination via Hands and Gloves

这个小企业创新研究SBIR项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是改变医疗保健和食品行业通过手和手套控制病原体交叉污染的能力，并通过限制新冠肺炎危机的传播来加强国家对危机的应对。这项创新还将减少来自其他病原体的医疗保健获得性感染，这些感染导致170万人患病，9.8万人死亡，美国医院每年的直接成本估计为450亿美元。通过手和手套的交叉污染是病原体传播和由此产生的感染的主要原因。洗手液和洗手液提供周期性的卫生，然而，通过周期性洗手或消毒之间的手交叉污染是一个固有的风险。同样，戴上新手套有助于确保使用的手套是卫生的，但它们在使用过程中会受到污染。这项提案中描述的创新为洗手之间和换手套之间提供了持续的手卫生。在工人的手和手套上长期保持持续的抗菌活性将减少包括SARS CoV-2在内的病原体的传播。这项研究旨在开发含有不同类别抗菌剂的细胞基抗菌组合物，以覆盖生物表面(手)和非生物表面(手套)，以实现持久的抗菌活性。这项SBIR第一阶段项目旨在解决在生物和非生物表面上保持持久抗菌活性的技术挑战，以对抗病毒和细菌靶标，包括SARS CoV-2。技术挑战包括：(A)在含有蛋白质、脂肪和细胞等有机成分以及汗水和机械力等物理因素的情况下，抗菌组合物在生物和非生物表面上持续存在的能力；(B)快速灭活手和手套等复杂表面上的污染病原体；(C)确保组合物的生物兼容性，并通过简单的洗涤步骤将其去除。为了应对这些挑战，这项拟议的研究旨在开发以下技术领域的创新：(A)发现细胞成分和工艺工程，以稳定各种抗菌剂并保持病原体的快速灭活；(B)开发受自然启发的设计，以在皮肤表面保留基于细胞的抗菌成分，以保持持久的抗菌活性；(C)设计聚合物组合物，以将基于细胞的组合物保留在非生物表面；以及(D)对细胞组合物进行工程，以实现这些病原体的快速灭活。这可能是基于病原体载体组合物的工程亲和力以及细胞载体的抗菌剂释放率来实现的。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research SBIR project will be to transform the ability to control cross-contamination by pathogens via hands and gloves in the healthcare and food sectors and strengthen the nation’s response to the COVID-19 crisis by limiting its spread. This innovation will also reduce the healthcare-acquired infections from other pathogens that cause 1.7 million illnesses, 98,000 deaths and an estimated $45 billion annually in direct costs to US hospitals. Cross-contamination via hands and gloves is a leading cause of spread of pathogens and resulting infections. Handwashing and hand sanitizers provide periodic sanitation, however, cross-contamination via hands between periodic handwashing or sanitizing is an inherent risk. Likewise, donning fresh gloves helps ensure the gloves used are sanitary, but they become contaminated during use. Innovations described in this proposal provide continuous sanitation for hands between handwashing and between changes of gloves. Maintaining persistent antimicrobial activity for an extended period on hands and gloves of workers will reduce transmission of pathogens including SARS CoV-2. This research aims to develop cell-based antimicrobial compositions with diverse class of antimicrobials to coat both biotic surfaces (hands) and abiotic surfaces (gloves) for persistent antimicrobial activity.This SBIR Phase I project proposes to address the technical challenges in maintaining persistent antimicrobial activity on both biotic and abiotic surfaces against viral and bacterial targets including SARS CoV-2. The technical challenges include: (a) ability of antimicrobial compositions to persist on biotic and abiotic surfaces in the presence of organic content including proteins, lipids and cells as well as physical factors including sweat and mechanical forces; (b) achieving rapid inactivation of contaminating pathogens on complex surfaces such as hands and gloves; and (c) ensuring the biocompatibility of the compositions and removal with simple washing steps. To address these challenges this proposed research aims to develop innovations in the following technical areas: (a) discovery of cellular compositions and process engineering to stabilize diverse antimicrobials and maintain rapid inactivation of pathogens (b) development of nature inspired designs for retaining cell-based antimicrobial compositions on skin surfaces to maintain persistent antimicrobial activity (c) engineering polymer compositions to retain cell-based compositions on abiotic surfaces and (d) engineer cellular compositions to achieve rapid inactivation of these pathogens. This may be achieved based on engineering affinity of the carrier compositions for pathogens as well as the release rate of antimicrobials from cell-based carriers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.