Antibacterial hybrid coatings

Lysostaphin enzyme is an effective antibacterial agent proven to be promising for the prevention of healthcare-associated infections related to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Recently, safe, and non-toxic antibacterial hybrid coatings consisting of lysostaphin and waterborne polyurethane (PU) have been presented.

Lysostaphin was covalently immobilised onto polydopamine functionalised halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) to obtain stable HNT-lysostaphin nanohybrid structures with high effective lysostaphin concentrations, which were then incorporated into PU coatings.

Easily applied to surfaces in healthcare facilities

The resulting PU/HNT-lysostaphin hybrid coatings presented strong antibacterial activity against S. aureus with a >99 % killing efficiency. The incorporation of lysostaphin into the polymer matrix via HNTs as a carrier enhanced the stability of the enzyme resulting in non-leaching coatings that presented high operational stability over multiple bacterial incubation cycles and high storage stability without any significant loss of enzymatic activity. Furthermore, PU/HNT-lysostaphin coatings demonstrated significant antibiofilm properties and reduced the formation of S. aureus biofilms by 70 % relative to neat PU coatings.

According to the researchers, the lysostaphin based antibacterial hybrid coatings developed in the study, which can be easily applied to surfaces in healthcare facilities and medical devices offer an effective approach for the prevention of S. aureus associated nosocomial infections.

The study has been published in Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 156, July 2021.