Novel antimicrobial surfaces to combat AMR infections in medical implants and devices

尽管外科手术有了巨大的进步，但细菌感染仍然是导致医疗器械或植入物失败的主要原因，导致严重的患者创伤和NHS的巨大负担。目前对抗此类感染的解决方案主要基于将化学物质（例如抗生素）纳入设备，但这些方法有许多缺点。最大的问题之一是细菌对抗菌素的耐药性的发展，这被政府描述为对公众健康构成“世界末日”威胁的“定时炸弹”。因此，迫切需要一种全新的杀灭抗菌素耐药性（AMR）细菌的方法。这个项目探索了一种独特的物理方法，通过用微小的刺穿细菌的细胞壁来杀死抗生素耐药性细菌。这种结构的灵感来自于自然界中在蝉翅膀上发现的结构，并且可以结合在植入生物材料的表面。该项目旨在开发一系列能够通过纳米尖刺杀死细菌的创新表面，包括对抗生素有抗药性的细菌，并确定细菌是如何被杀死的。随着进一步的商业开发，这种新型抗菌表面有潜力用于下一代生物医学设备和植入物，与目前使用的设备相比，性能有所提高。

Despite tremendous improvements in surgical procedures, bacterial infection remains the dominant cause of medical device or implant failure, resulting in significant patient trauma and a huge burden on the NHS. Current solutions to combat such infections are largely based upon incorporation of chemicals (e.g. antibiotics) into the devices, but these approaches have a number of shortcomings. One of the biggest problems is the development of antimicrobial resistance amongst bacteria, which has been described by the government as a 'ticking time bomb' that poses an "apocalyptic" threat to public health. Thus a completely new way of killing antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria is urgently needed. This project explores a unique physical means to kill AMR bacteria by puncturing their cell walls with tiny spikes. Such structures are inspired by those found in nature on cicada wings and can be incorporated on the surface of implant biomaterials. This project aims to develop a range of innovative surfaces that are able to kill bacteria via nanospikes, including bacteria that are resistant to killing by antibiotics, and to determine exactly how the bacteria are being killed. With further commercial exploitation such novel antimicrobial surfaces have potential to be used for next-generation biomedical devices and implants, with improved performance compared to those devices in current use.