A biomimetic approach to preventing infections in transepithelial implants

在加拿大，每九名医院患者中就有一人感染与医疗保健相关的感染。每年，我们的医院有超过22万例感染病例，导致至少8000人死亡。感染通常是由于导管、输液泵或植入物(通常是牙科或整形外科)穿透皮肤而发生的，从而打破了保护我们的身体免受外部环境影响的连续密封。这些被称为“经皮医疗器械”。虽然目前对感染的治疗是基于抗生素的，但我们的项目提出了一种完全不同的方法，这也将解决日益增长的构成抗生素耐药性的全球公共卫生挑战。我们从自然器官中获得灵感，这些器官和经皮设备一样，也会破坏皮肤：牙齿。虽然牙齿可以穿过牙床，但健康的牙齿不容易感染，因为它们可以与牙床组织形成紧密的密封。我们的初步工作表明，牙齿中存在的蛋白质是促成牙齿和牙床组织之间密封的关键因素。在这个为期一年的项目中，我们将研究牙齿蛋白质的哪些片段对组织结合最重要，然后我们将这些蛋白质片段附着到用于经皮矫形和牙科植入的生物材料的表面。这将创造出新一代基于生物材料的经皮植入物，这种材料能够与皮肤强烈结合，从而防止感染，就像我们自然的经皮器官牙齿所能做到的那样。该项目是两位在材料科学和材料表面(Cerruti，McGill大学)和牙科材料以及合成和天然生物分子(Aparicio，西班牙加泰罗尼亚国际大学)方面具有互补专业知识的研究人员之间的合作。这两位研究人员在发表论文方面有着出色的记录，在科学成就方面也表现出色，并致力于EDI实践。结合他们的专业知识和两所大学现有的设施，将确保这一催化剂项目的成功，这将为一个更长期的项目提供资金，该项目将在更大范围内解决与医院相关的感染问题。

In Canada, one in every nine hospital patients contracts a healthcare-associated infection. Each year, there are more than 220,000 cases of infections in our hospitals, resulting in at least 8,000 deaths. Infections often occur due to the presence of catheters, infusion pumps, or implants (usually dental or orthopedic) that penetrate through the skin, thus breaking the continuous seal that protects our body from the outer environments. These are called "percutaneous medical devices". While current treatments for infections arebased on antibiotics, our project proposes a completely different approach, which will also address the rising global public health challenge that poses antibiotic resistance. We take inspiration from natural organs that, like the percutaneous devices, also breach the skin: teeth. Although teeth break through the gums, healthy teeth are not prone to infection due to the tight seal that they can form with the gum tissue. Our preliminary work showed that proteins present in teeth are key elements that contribute to the seal between teeth and gum tissue. In this one-year project, we will study which segments of the tooth proteins are most important for tissue binding, and we will then attach these protein segments to the surface of biomaterials that are used in percutaneous orthopedic and dental implants. This will create a new generation of percutaneous implants based on biomaterials that are able to strongly bind with the skin, thus preventing infections much like our natural percutaneous organs, teeth, are able to do. This project is a collaboration between two researchers with complementary expertise in materials science and material surfaces (Cerruti, McGill University) and dental materials and synthetic and natural biomolecules (Aparicio, International University of Catalonia, Spain). The two researchers have an excellent record of publications, excellence in scientific achievements, and commitment to EDI practices. Combining their expertise and the facilities available at the two Universities will ensure success of this catalyst project, which will provide ground for fundings for a longer-term project that will tackle the problem of hospital-associated infections on a larger scale.