Breakthrough! This Technology Will Make Bacteria Slip, Literally

Nearly 50 percent of the recorded 1.7 million cases of hospital-acquired infections in the U.S. are caused by biofouling or the contamination of medical devices and materials that cause infection. To resolve these, a coating called SLIPS was developed to reduce adhesion of bacteria and literally make them slip off.

Before, antibiotics are employed to patients to reduce cases of biofouling but still, bacteria tends to 'evolve' and even turns resistant to the medication, making it harder for doctors to terminate possible causes of infection. Lobbying on this condition, a new approach was provided by providing a protective coat to the devices, minimizing bacteria transfer and adhesion. Developed by Dr. Joanna Aizenberg, a chemistry and chemical biology professor at the Harvard University, a self-healing slippery surface coating is being explored nowadays by medical experts.

The SLIPS or 'slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces' is a high-end low-adhesive material made up of low-cost materials and are easy to manufacture as well. The concept behind the SLIPS came from the capabilities of a Nepenthes pitcher plant that has slippery material found on its leaves to trap insects which eventually ends up as the plant's meal. According to Dr. Aizenberg, SLIPS was designed to withstand different environmental conditions including varying temperature, pressure, and even UV exposure.

"We are developing SLIPS recipes for a variety of medical applications by working with different medical-grade materials, ensuring the stability of the coating, and carefully pairing the non-fouling properties of the SLIPS materials to specific contaminants, environments and performance requirements," Dr. Aizenberg said in a press release. "Here we have extended our repertoire and applied the SLIPS concept very convincingly to medical-grade lubricants, demonstrating its enormous potential in implanted devices prone to bacterial fouling and infection."

According to a journal recently published in Biomaterials, a research team from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the Harvard University showed proof on SLIPS' potential. In their findings, SLIPS-treated disks immersed in Staphylococcus aureus had almost 100 percent reduction in bacterial adhesion as compared to their controls. Their laboratory experiments included simple immersion of the SLIPS-coated disks to Staphylococcus aureus solutions, solutions that mimic processes in living organisms, and implanting medical mesh on murine models. All their results showed almost no infection of any bacteria at all.

Read here: A study employing the use of SLIPS

"SLIPs have many promising medical applications that are in a very early stage of evaluation," explained Dr. Elliot Chaikof, surgeon-in-chief at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a faculty member at the Wyss Institute. "Clearly, there's more work to be done before its introduction into the clinic, but this is one of a few studies that reinforces the exciting opportunities presented by this strategy to improve device performance and clinical outcomes."