IIT Mandi reinvents implant safety with revolutionary antibacterial coating
The research will improve the overall therapeutic outcome and experience of patients undergoing orthopaedic or dental surgeries with fewer chances of secondary infection development, inflammation, and re-hospitalisation
Indian Institute of Technology Mandi (IIT Mandi) researchers have unveiled an innovative solution to a long-standing problem with medical implants – the risk of infections. A team led by Dr Amit Jaiswal, Associate Professor, School of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT Mandi, has introduced an ingenious solution for implant-associated infections by utilising innovative sugar-coated nanosheets as implant coatings.
The research team has devised a biocompatible, non-leaching, and contact-based antibacterial coating for implants, utilising quaternary pullulan functionalised MoS2 (MCP) glycosheets. These cationic MCP glycosheets have been seamlessly applied to the surfaces of polydopamine-modified stainless steel and polyvinyl fluoride substrates through a straightforward electrostatic interaction process.
The developed MCP coating exhibited outstanding antibacterial efficacy, effectively eradicating more than 99.5 per cent of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria.
A remarkable achievement of this research is that this antibacterial performance remains stable for over 30 days without any leaching from the implant surfaces. Furthermore, MCP-coated implants have proven to be entirely safe, inducing neither acute nor sub-chronic toxicity in mammalian cells during both in-vitro and in-vivo testing.
Speaking about the developed antibacterial coating, Dr Jaiswal, Associate Professor, School of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT Mandi, said, “The developed coating is a unique combination of quaternised pullulan and MoS2 nanosheets provides a potent defence against infections, while the easy and stable coating process ensures no leakage from the implant surfaces. Crucially, this solution has been proven to be entirely safe for human cells in vitro and in vivo in mice models, making it a promising advancement in the field of medical implants.”
The pioneering approach not only offers exceptional protection against infections but also promises simplified and secure implementation, potentially transforming the safety and efficacy of implant technology.
The MCP coating has demonstrated its ability to prevent Staphylococcus aureus colonisation on stainless steel implants in a mouse model of implant-associated infection. This breakthrough represents a simple, secure, and highly effective antibacterial coating that can revolutionise the prevention of implant-associated infections.
The researchers are in discussion with orthopaedic hospitals to take it forward for clinical trials.
The results of this groundbreaking research have been published in the prestigious Journal of Materials Chemistry B in a paper co-authored by Dr Amit Jaiswal from IIT Mandi along with Dr V Badireenath Konkimalla from the National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneshwar, along with research scholars, Dr Shounak Roy, Dr Prakash Haloi, Siva Lokesh and veterinarian Saurabh Chawla.
