H2020-MSCA-Individual Fellowship- Dual Function Polymer Materials for Blood Contacting Applications

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 749207
Surface-induced thrombosis and infection are two main complications which cause failure of medical devices. Device-related thrombosis is associated with activation of blood clotting and platelets adhesion and activation.

Infection of the implanted devices occurred as a result of bacteria adhesion to the biomaterial surface. A genuinely biocompatible polymer for bloodcontacting devices should have both antithrombotic and antibacterial functionalities as both types of complication lead to an increase in morbidity, extended hospital stay and mortality.

In order to prevent device-induced thrombosis and infection, novel dual function polymer materials - thromboresistant and antimicrobial, will be produced.

PVC and PU polymers modified with Cu and Se for catalytic NO generation were produced. Further thrombin direct inhibitor Argatroban was chemichally attached onto the Cu/Se-modified polymers surface. All obtained materials were characterized by physico-chemical methods such as ICP-OES, ICP-MS, XPS, FTIR.

The NO generation ability of polymers in both PBS and human plasma were tested and showed that Argatroban Cu/Se-modified polymers are capable of providing the physiological level of NO at physiological pH. The obtained data suggest that argatroban Cu/Se-modified polymers potentially can produce nitric oxide in the blood from endogenous S-nitrosothiols. Additionally, Argatroban Cu/Se-modified PVC and PU effectively inhibited thrombin activity in buffer system and in platelet poor plasma or platelet rich plasma, thus preventing the platelet activation and aggregation.

Another important achievement is that Argatroban Cu/Se-modified polymers showed antibacterial effect during 2h of incubation with S. aureus and E. coli in the presence of 100 µM GSNO/GSH in PBS (Fig. 1).

Cu-coated polymers by magnetron-sputtering technique were obtained in Teer Coatings Ltd in collaboration with Dr Parnia Navabpour and Dr Hailin Sun and tested for NO generation ability.