Nanopillared Surfaces Disrupt Pseudomonas aeruginosa Mechanoresponsive Upstream Motility

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic, multidrug-resistant, human pathogen that forms biofilms in environments with fluid flow, such as the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients, industrial pipelines, and medical devices. P. aeruginosa twitches upstream on surfaces by the cyclic extension and retraction of its mechanoresponsive type IV pili motility appendages. The prevention of upstream motility, host invasion, and infectious biofilm formation in fluid flow systems remains an unmet challenge. Here, we describe the design and application of scalable nanopillared surface structures fabricated using nanoimprint lithography that reduce upstream motility and colonization by P. aeruginosa. We used flow channels to induce shear stress typically found in catheter tubes and microscopy analysis to investigate the impact of nanopillared surfaces with different packing fractions on upstream motility trajectory, displacement, velocity, and surface attachment. We found that densely packed, subcellular nanopillared surfaces, with pillar periodicities ranging from 200 to 600 nm and widths ranging from 70 to 215 nm, inhibit the mechanoresponsive upstream motility and surface attachment. This bacteria-nanostructured surface interface effect allows us to tailor surfaces with specific nanopillared geometries for disrupting cell motility and attachment in fluid flow systems.

Synergistic Antimicrobial Activity of a Nanopillar Surface on a Chitosan Hydrogel

“…Mitigating microbial infection and contamination remains a global challenge, spurring the continued development of a diverse range of antimicrobial technologies and biomaterials. There are two main approaches to producing antimicrobial surfaces: using either a material that incorporates microbiostatic antimicrobial agents such as cationic compounds, antibiotics, or silver − or microbiocidal topographical nanopatterns to physically interact with microbes, thereby inhibiting the growth of these organisms. − Although the first strategy is effective and can have simple preparation, antimicrobial agents may have limitations in terms of stability and longevity. Moreover, microbes can develop antibiotic resistance.…”

Bactericidal efficiency of micro- and nanostructured surfaces: a critical perspective

“…For example, under flow conditions, bacteria uses their extracellular appendages to manure, 42 or swim upstream. 94 Further, it has been observed that bacterial growth increases with increasing fluid shear. 95 Bacterial phenotyping and biofilm density are also known to be influenced by the fluid shear rate.…”

“…Induced by external factors, sometimes the bacteria also use passive motion. Interestingly, upstream swimming by E. coli, [122][123][124] and P. aeruginosa 94 under dynamic conditions is stimulated by various environmental factors such as changes in uid shear 124 or surface topography of substrates. 94 Bacteria are also known to be sensitive to external uid ow and shear rate.…”

“…Interestingly, upstream swimming by E. coli, [122][123][124] and P. aeruginosa 94 under dynamic conditions is stimulated by various environmental factors such as changes in uid shear 124 or surface topography of substrates. 94 Bacteria are also known to be sensitive to external uid ow and shear rate. 42 For example, bacteria swimming near boundaries in external uid ows have a tendency to swim against the ow and its swimming motion varies with uid shear rate.…”

Impact of surface topography on the bacterial attachment to micro- and nano-patterned polymer films

“…Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) [17] is a suitable candidate to realize bioinspired patterns, as it is a high-resolution lithographic method with generally low cost, high throughput and the ability to use different substrates materials, allowing surface structuring of transparent and flexible materials [18] . Several examples of bio-inspired topographies fabricated by batch-to-batch NIL can be found in the literature based on one-level nanocones [19] , nanopillars [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] , micro lines [25] and micro mushrooms [26] . Using NIL is possible to fabricate multi-scale topographies combining micro- and nano-structures, denoted as hierarchical structures [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] .…”