Surfaces that can both prevent bacterial biofouling and inhibit the expression of virulence phenotypes in surrounding planktonic bacteria are of interest in a broad range of contexts. Here, we report new slippery-liquid infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) that resist bacterial colonization (owing to inherent ‘slippery’ surface character) and also attenuate virulence phenotypes in non-adherent cells by gradually releasing small-molecule quorum sensing inhibitors (QSIs). QSIs active against Pseudomonas aeruginosa can be loaded into SLIPS without loss of their slippery and anti-fouling properties, and imbedded agents can be released into surrounding media over hours to days depending on the structures of the loaded agent. This controlled-release approach is useful for inhibiting virulence factor production and can also inhibit bacterial biofilm formation on nearby, non-SLIPS-coated surfaces. Finally, we demonstrate that this approach is compatible with the simultaneous release of more than one type of QSI, enabling greater control over virulence and suggesting new opportunities to tune the anti-fouling properties of these slippery surfaces.

We report aqueous emulsions of thermotropic liquid crystals (LCs) that can intercept and report on the presence of N-acyl-l-homoserine lactones (AHLs), a class of amphiphiles used by pathogenic bacteria to regulate quorum sensing (QS), monitor population densities, and initiate group activities, including biofilm formation and virulence factor production. The concentration of AHL required to promote “bipolar” to “radial” transitions in micrometer-scale droplets of the nematic LC 4′-pentyl-cyanobiphenyl (5CB) decreases with increasing carbon number in the acyl tail, reaching a threshold concentration of 7.1 μM for 3-oxo-C12-AHL, a native QS signal in the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The LC droplets in these emulsions also respond to biologically relevant concentrations of the biosurfactant rhamnolipid, a virulence factor produced by communities of P. aeruginosa under the control of QS. Systematic studies using bacterial mutants support the conclusion that these emulsions respond selectively to the production of rhamnolipid and AHLs and not to other products produced by bacteria at lower (subquorate) population densities. Finally, these emulsions remain configurationally stable in growth media, enabling them to be deployed either in bacterial supernatants or in situ in bacterial cultures to eavesdrop on QS and report on changes in bacterial group behavior that can be detected in real time using polarized light. Our results provide new tools to detect and report on bacterial QS and virulence and a materials platform for the rapid and in situ monitoring of bacterial communication and resulting group behaviors in bacterial communities.

Staphylococcus aureus infections represent the major cause of titanium based-orthopaedic implant failure. Current treatments for S. aureus infections involve the systemic delivery of antibiotics and additional surgeries, increasing health-care costs and affecting patient's quality of life. As a step toward the development of new strategies that can prevent these infections, we build upon previous work demonstrating that the colonization of catheters by the fungal pathogen Candida albicans can be prevented by coating them with thin polymer multilayers composed of chitosan (CH) and hyaluronic acid (HA) designed to release a β-amino acid-based peptidomimetic of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). We demonstrate here that this β-peptide is also potent against S. aureus (MBPC = 4 µg/mL) and characterize its selectivity toward S. aureus biofilms. We demonstrate further that β-peptide-containing CH/HA thin-films can be fabricated on the surfaces of rough planar titanium substrates in ways that allow mammalian cell attachment and permit the long-term release of βpeptide. β-Peptide loading on CH/HA thin-films was then adjusted to achieve release of β-peptide quantities that selectively prevent S. aureus biofilms on titanium substrates in vitro for up to 24 days and remained antimicrobial after being challenged sequentially five times with S. aureus inocula, while causing no significant MC3T3-E1 preosteoblast cytotoxicity compared to uncoated and film-coated controls lacking β-peptide. We conclude that these β-peptide-containing films ★ Part of the Drug Delivery for Musculoskeletal Applications Special Issue, edited by Robert S. Hastings and Professor Johnna S.Temenoff.

We report the reactive layer-by-layer assembly of amine-reactive polymer multilayers using an azlactone-functionalized polymer and small-molecule diamine linkers. This approach yields crosslinked polymer/linker-type films that can be further functionalized, after fabrication, by treatment with functional primary amines, and provides opportunities to incorporate other useful functionality that can be difficult to introduce using other polyamine building blocks. Films fabricated using poly(2-vinyl-4,4-dimethylazlactone) (PVDMA) and three model non-degradable aliphatic diamine linkers yielded reactive thin films that were stable upon incubation in physiologically relevant media. In contrast, films fabricated using PVDMA and varying amounts of the model disulfide-containing diamine linker cystamine were stable in normal physiological media, but were unstable and eroded rapidly upon exposure to chemical reducing agents. We demonstrate that this approach can be used to fabricate functionalized polymer microcapsules that degrade in reducing environments, and that rates of erosion, extents of capsule swelling, and capsule degradation can be tuned by control over the relative concentration of cystamine linker used during fabrication. The polymer/linker approach used here expands the range of properties and functions that can be designed into reactive PVDMA-based coatings, including functionality that can degrade, erode, and undergo triggered destruction in aqueous environments. We therefore anticipate that these approaches will be useful for the functionalization, patterning, and customization of coatings, membranes, capsules, and interfaces of potential utility in biotechnical or biomedical contexts and other areas where degradation and transience are desired. The proof of concept strategies reported here are likely to be general, and should prove useful for the design of amine-reactive coatings containing other functional structures by judicious control of the structures of the linkers used during assembly.

We report the design and characterization of Fe-containing soft materials that respond to, interface with, and/or sequester Fe-chelating “siderophores” that bacteria use to scavenge for iron and regulate iron homeostasis. We demonstrate that metal–organic network coatings fabricated by cross-linking tannic acid with iron­(III) are stable in bacterial growth media but erode upon exposure to biologically relevant concentrations of enterobactin and deferoxamine B, two siderophores produced by Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, respectively. Our results are consistent with changes in network stability triggered by the extraction of iron­(III) and reveal rates of siderophore-induced disassembly to depend upon both siderophore concentration and affinity for iron­(III). These coatings also disassemble when incubated in the presence of cultures of wild-type Escherichia coli. Assays using genetically modified strains of E. coli reveal the erosion of these materials by live cultures to be promoted by secretion of enterobactin and not from other factors resulting from bacterial growth and metabolism. This stimuli-responsive behavior can also be exploited to design coatings that release the Fe-chelating antibiotic ciprofloxacin into bacterial cultures. Finally, we report the discovery of Fe-containing polymer hydrogels that avidly sequester and scavenge enterobactin from surrounding media. The materials reported here (i) are capable of interfacing or interfering with mechanisms that bacteria use to maintain iron homeostasis, either by yielding iron to or by sequestering iron-scavenging agents from bacteria, and (ii) can respond dynamically to or report on the presence of populations of iron-scavenging bacteria. Our results thus provide new tools that could prove useful for microbiological research and enable new stimuli-responsive strategies for interfacing with or controlling the behaviors of communities of iron-scavenging bacteria.