Sprayable medical device and personal protective equipment coatings with long-term anti-viral activity to fight COVID-19

虽然SARS-CoV-2的飞沫传播是该病毒高感染性方面的主要问题，但病毒在各种表面上令人惊讶的长期感染性也引起了对潜在表面传播的担忧。 这些问题在医疗保健环境中尤为严重，在口罩（约7天）以及用于诊断和治疗的金属医疗器械（例如听诊器，约4天）上观察到特别长期的病毒感染性。 鉴于加拿大各地医护人员的高感染率（约占COVID-19病例总数的10%），开发一种基于技术的解决方案，用于持续灭活表面上的病毒，而无需重复耗时的消毒程序，预计将保护医护人员和患者，并安全地解决个人防护设备的不足。 在这个项目中，托德霍尔博士在麦克马斯特大学的实验室，SteriPro公司。（领先的医院消毒服务提供商）和Shawn Mondoux博士（圣约瑟夫医院急诊室质量和安全负责人汉密尔顿）旨在通过开发可喷涂的抗感染涂层来应对这一挑战，这些涂层可以安全地应用于表面，并在至少24小时内保持持久的抗病毒特性。 这项技术建立在Hoare实验室已经建立的功能聚合物的基础上，可以与金属、聚合物和纤维素基表面牢固结合，同时促进高效的抗菌活性; SARS-CoV-2等病毒通常更容易灭活。 工作重点将是为钛（听诊器头）、聚丙烯（N95口罩）和纤维素纤维（外科口罩/手术衣）开发坚固的抗病毒涂层。 SteriPro将与其医院和政府合作伙伴合作提供基本的性能测试，监管咨询和验证研究，而Mondoux将在他的ER领导一项概念验证研究，以评估涂层在真实的医疗环境中的性能。 虽然应用测试将专注于解决紧急的COVID-19问题，但涂层的广谱活性最终有望解决多种类型的医院感染（例如抗生素耐药菌）。

While droplet transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is the major concern in terms of the high infectivity of the virus, the surprisingly long-term infectivity of viruses on various surfaces also raises concerns about potential surface transmission. These concerns are particularly acute in a healthcare setting, with particularly long-term viral infectivity observed on face masks (~7 days) as well as metal medical devices used for diagnosis and treatment (e.g. stethoscopes, ~4 days). Given the high infectivity rates of healthcare workers across Canada (~10% of total COVID-19 cases), developing a technology-based solution for persistently deactivating viruses on surfaces without the need for repeated time-consuming disinfection procedures is anticipated to protect both healthcare workers and patients as well as safely address deficits in personal protective equipment. In this project, a partnership between Dr. Todd Hoare's lab at McMaster University, SteriPro Inc. (a leading provider of hospital disinfection services), and Dr. Shawn Mondoux (Quality and Safety Lead at the Emergency Room of St. Joseph's Hospital Hamilton) aims to address this challenge by developing sprayable anti-infective coatings that can be safely applied to surfaces and maintain persistent anti-viral properties over at least 24 hours. This technology builds on functional polymers already established in the Hoare lab to strongly bind to metal, polymer, and cellulose-based surfaces while facilitating highly effective anti-bacterial activity; viruses like SARS-CoV-2 are typically easier to deactivate. Work will be focused on developing robust anti-viral coatings for titanium (stethoscope heads), polypropylene (N95 masks), and cellulosic fibres (surgical masks/gowns). SteriPro will provide essential performance testing, regulatory consultation, and validation studies in collaboration with its hospital and government partners, while Mondoux will lead a proof-of-concept study at his ER to assess coating performance in a real healthcare environment. While application testing will be focused on addressing urgent COVID-19 concerns, the broad-spectrum activity of the coatings is ultimately expected to address multiple types of hospital infections (e.g. antibiotic resistant bacteria).