In Vitro Efficacy of a Novel Active-Release Antimicrobial Coating To Eradicate Biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Implant-related infections are becoming increasingly difficult to treat due to the formation of biofilms on implant surfaces. This study analyzed the in vitro efficacy of a novel antimicrobial coating against biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, using a flow cell system. Results indicated that P. aeruginosa biofilms were reduced by greater than 8 log10 units in less than 24 h. Data indi-cated that this active-release coating may be promising for preventing biofilm implant-related infections. Biofilm implant-related infections affect a large portion of pa-tients all across the world (1–3). Biofilms adhere to hard sur-faces and to each other and subsequently produce an extracellular matrix of polymeric substances (4–7). Biofilms may also be 10 to 1,000 times more resistant to antibiotics than their planktonic counterparts (8, 9). In order to prevent biofilm implant-related infections, one approach has been the development of active-re-lease antibacterial implant coatings, which have been investigated for approximately 30 years (3, 10–24). To date, many coatings have had limited success in clinical and in vivo settings (13, 17–23, 25–27). This limited efficacy may relate to the use of stagnant broth solutions during in vitro development that may not accu