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Author
Fernández Batlle, Ares
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Abstract
Nosocomial infections, bacterial infections that are acquired in health centers, affect 5% of patients and are one of the 10 most frequent causes of death in the United States. The most common antimicrobial therapy known is antibiotics, even so, these seem to be the least suitable for the treatment of infections due to the resistance to antibiotics that bacteria are capable of developing. It is estimated that there are around 2.8 million infections by antibiotic-resistant bacteria and 35,000 people die from them each year. Therefore, there is an important priority for health systems in finding alternative and effective strategies to create new therapies that prevent bacterial colonization.
Bacteriophobic surfaces have been shown to have great antimicrobial potential, as is the case with zwitterionic surfaces. These are based on surfaces that contain a positive and negative charge, capable of attracting a large amount of water in their structure and limit protein adhesion and bacterial immobilization thanks to their high hydrophilic property.
In this work different zwitterionic hydrogels have been synthesized by combining two zwitterionic monomers CBMA and SBMA, three crosslinkers EGDMA, EGDA and MBAA and a V-501 initiator. The protein adhesion of BSA has been studied thanks to the BCA assay, where it has been possible to demonstrate that zwitterionic hydrogels have a greater protein antifouling capacity. On the other hand, the antibacterial effect of zwitterionic hydrogels has been studied with two different bacteria: one gram-positive (S. aureus) and another gram-negative (E. coli DH5α). Zwitterionic hydrogels have also been shown to reduce bacterial immobilization. These results make these biomaterials a therapy with a promising future that can help slow down the problem of antimicrobial resistance and prevent subsequent nosocomial infections that affect both the global economy and public health as well as people's health.
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