Prevention of urinary catheter-associated infections by coating antimicrobial peptides from crowberry endophytes

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Monteiro, C, Costa, F, Pirttilä, A, Tejesvi, M, Martins, MCL
• Other Authors: Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2019
• Subjects: Anti-Infective Agents / therapeutic use; Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / therapeutic use; Catheter-Related Infections / prevention & control; Endophytes / chemistry; Ericaceae / chemistry; Escherichia coli / drug effects; Humans; Klebsiella pneumoniae / drug effects; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Pseudomonas aeruginosa / drug effects; Staphylococcus aureus / drug effects; Urinary Catheterization / adverse effects; Urinary Catheterization / methods; Urinary Catheters / adverse effects; Urinary Catheters / microbiology; Crowberry
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10216/136232; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47108-5

Urinary catheters are extensively used in hospitals, being responsible for about 75% of hospital-acquired infections. In this work, a de novo designed antimicrobial peptide (AMP) Chain201D was studied in the context of urinary catheter-associated infections. Chain201D showed excellent antimicrobial activity against relevant ATCC strains and clinical isolates of bacteria and yeast and demonstrated high stability in a wide range of temperatures, pH and salt concentrations. Moreover, the bactericidal activity of Chain201D immobilized on a model surface was studied against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), some of the most prevalent strains found in urinary catheter-associated infections. Chain201D was successfully tethered to ((1-mercapto-11-undecyl)-(tetra(ethylene glycol) (EG4)) terminated self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), (EG4-SAMs), activated by 1,1'-Carbonyldiimidazole (CDI) at different concentrations. Chain201D surfaces can bind and kill by contact a high percentage of adherent bacteria. These achievements are obtained without any peptide modification (for chemoselective conjugation) and without the use of a spacer. Moreover, increased amounts of immobilized AMP lead to higher numbers of adhered/dead bacteria, revealing a concentration-dependent behaviour and demonstrating that Chain201D has excellent potential for developing antimicrobial urinary catheters. AntINFECT: Bioengineered Advanced Therapies for Problematic Infected Wounds POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031781) and Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences (UID/BIM/04293/2019). C. Monteiro would like to acknowledge national funding through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., provided by the contract-program and according to numbers 4, 5 and 6 of art. 23 of Law no. 57/2016 of 29th August, as amended by Law no. 57/2017 of 19th July. Professor Paula Gomes from Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto (FC-UP), Porto Peptide Synthesis Facility (POP-UP) for CEM 7 peptide. The funding received ...