A substrate independent approach for fabrication of biocompatible nano-silver/polymer antibacterial coatings

3^rd International Conference and Exhibition on Materials Science & Engineering

October 06-08, 2014 Hilton San Antonio Airport, USA

Shima Taheri

Accepted Abstracts: Material Sci Eng

Abstract :

The development of silver nanoparticle (AgNPs) as a potent alternative to conventional antibiotics has been extensively investigated over the last decades. However, due to the prominent cytotoxic effect of silver on mammalian cells, there is always strong motivation to develop alternative technology that can compact bacterial infection without affecting the mammalian cells. Capping AgNPs with appropriate functional groups and incorporating them into a polymeric matrix is a feasible alternative to overcome these limitations. AgNPs with different chemical structures (nanocapsules and nanoparticles) and functionalities (polymer, lipid, and starch) were synthesized. To demonstrate application as antibacterial coatings, the stabilized AgNPs were then immobilized onto model surfaces made of a thin layer of allylamine plasma polymerized film. This substrate-independent technique preserves the AgNPs functionalities for a longer period of application time. All fabricated surface coatings exhibited superior antibacterial activity against four important Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens. This study further aimed to focus on investigating the effects of AgNPs surface components on delivery of engineered AgNPs from the coatings into the human fibroblast cell as well as bone marrow derived macrophages (BMDM). Most of the surfaces did not affect BMDM function or viability and demonstrated no toxicity toward fibroblast cells, except for lipid coated nanosilvers. Therefore, the chemical structures of nanoparticles significantly affect the coatings? antibacterial, biofilm prevention and biocompatibility capabilities. We believe that such biocompatible nanostructures are of potential interest for various biomedical applications such as smart drug carriers and antibacterial coatings for medical devices and wound dressings.

Biography :

Shima Taheri is a PhD student from University of South Australia. She qualified in Chemistry in 2004 and then went on to do a Masters Degree in Organic Chemistry followed by MBA-Strategic Management. She has already 12 refereed journal papers, more than 314 citations and H-index=7. Her area of interest is currently surface modification of biomedical devices via deposition of a thin layer of antibacterial protective coating that is fabricated via immobilization of silver nanoparticles onto plasma polymerized films. Furthermore, she is studying bacteria and cell interaction with these surfaces.