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The effects of fluid composition and shear conditions on bacterial adhesion to an antifouling peptide-coated surface

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Abstract

Biofilms can damage implants and are difficult to treat. Here, we assessed the performance of a tripeptide that self-assembles into an antifouling coating over a broad range of shear conditions that are relevant to biomedical applications. Adhesion assays were performed using a parallel plate flow chamber. The results show that the coating can reduce Escherichia coli adhesion up to 70% when compared with glass. At a shear rate of 15/s, typical for urinary catheters, the coating reduced the adhesion by more than 50%. These findings suggest critical features that should be considered when developing surfaces for biomedical purposes.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000005–LEPABE-2-ECO-INNOVATION from NORTE 2020, under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and by the Rosetrees Trust. Patricia Alves acknowledges the receipt of a Ph.D. grant from the Portuguese Foundation from Science and Technology (FCT) (PD/BD/114317/2016). Sivan Nir acknowledges the support of the Israeli Water Authority. The authors also acknowledge support from the EU COST Action iPROMEDAI TD1305.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LEPABE - Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, 4200-465, Porto, Portugal

    Patrícia Alves & Filipe Mergulhão

  2. Institute of Chemistry and the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel

    Sivan Nir & Meital Reches

Authors
  1. Patrícia Alves
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  2. Sivan Nir
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  3. Meital Reches
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  4. Filipe Mergulhão
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Meital Reches or Filipe Mergulhão.

Appendices

Supplementary material

The supplementary material for this article can be found at {rs|https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2018.160|url|}.

Authors’ contributions

Reches M and Mergulhao F conceptualized and designed the study. Alves P performed all the adhesion assays and the surface hydrophobicity analysis. Nir S characterized the peptide coating and surface. All authors contributed to the data interpretation. All the authors reviewed the manuscript and approved the final manuscript.

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Alves, P., Nir, S., Reches, M. et al. The effects of fluid composition and shear conditions on bacterial adhesion to an antifouling peptide-coated surface. MRS Communications 8, 938–946 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2018.160

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2018.160

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