Despite considerable research and development efforts, the problem of infections related to biomedical devices and implants persists. Bacteria evidently can readily colonize surfaces of synthetic materials, such as those used for the fabrication of catheters, hip and knee implants, and many other devices. As the growing colony encapsulates itself with a protective exocellular bacterial polysaccharide layer, the biofilm becomes much harder to combat than circulating bacteria. Thus, there is a strong need to mitigate bacterial colonization by equipping the surfaces of biomedical devices and implants with features such as surface chemistry and surface roughness that are unfavorable for bacterial attachment. Here we review a number of strategies used for the design of antibacterial coatings. We also discuss specific issues that arise from using various types of coatings.

Antibacterial surfaces for biomedical devices.

Simple indole alkaloids and those with a nonrearranged monoterpenoid unit

Factors affecting mushroom Pleurotus spp.

The use of implantable medical devices is a common and indispensable part of medical care for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. However, as side effect, the implant of medical devices quite often leads to the occurrence of difficult-to-treat infections, as a consequence of the colonization of their abiotic surfaces by biofilm-growing microorganisms increasingly resistant to antimicrobial therapies. A promising strategy to combat device-related infections is based on anti-infective biomaterials that either repel microbes, so they cannot attach to the device surfaces, or kill them in the surrounding areas. In general, such biomaterials are characterized by antifouling coatings, exhibiting low adhesion or even repellent properties towards microorganisms, or antimicrobial coatings, able to kill microbes approaching the surface. In this light, the present overview will address the development in the last two decades of antifouling and antimicrobial biomaterials designed to potentially limit the initial stages of microbial adhesion, as well as the microbial growth and biofilm formation on medical device surfaces.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/apm.12675

Antifouling and antimicrobial biomaterials: an overview.

Jorge E. Wright

Papers

rDNA analyses as an aid to the taxonomy of species of Ganoderma

Taxonomy of Ganoderma from southern South America: subgenus Ganoderma

The Genus Tulostoma (Gasteromycetes): A World Monograph

Isoenzymes of Ganoderma species from southern South America

5H-Furan-2-ones from fungal cultures of Aporpium caryae