"Silver Bullet": UBC proclaimed to keep the medical device free of bacteria
Date: 27, April 2022 Author: Market Statsville Group
April 27, 2022, University of British Columbia (UBC) researchers have developed a 'silver bullet' with a highly effective coating that won't damage human tissues and could potentially remove implant-associated infections
The UBC team discovered a coating that delivers silver in controlled quantities. This balances the line between killing harmful bacteria without affecting human cells.
Silver has long been acclaimed as a potential solution due to its ability to kill bacteria, but its use on implanted devices has hampered researchers until now. The main challenge is its toxicity. Extreme poisons that kill bacteria can also be harmful to human cells and tissues.
Implanted medical devices can rescue lives, but they carry a high-level risk of infection. For instance, catheter urinary tract infections are among the most common hospital-acquired infections. Silver has long been acclaimed as a potential solution due to its ability to kill bacteria, but its use on implanted devices has hampered researchers until now. The main challenge is its toxicity.
The researchers examined for 30 days in an environment that contained high concentrations of varied and strong bacteria known to cause infections. The device came on without any bacteria attached. A seven-day test with live mice was performed the same way and did not harm the mice's tissues.
It preserved its killing activity for longer than that achieved by other coatings.
The coating can be applicable to almost any material used in medical devices and is economical due to the few quantities used per device. Coatings that include silver have also proven immensely complex to make, lack durability, are easily blocked with crystals or proteins, or do not stick well to implants and devices' surfaces.
The research team looks forward to understanding how the coating performs in clinical trials and is positive that their discovery could be widely used to avoid infections in patients within the upcoming decade.