Nanoporous Superhydrophobic Coatings that Promote
the Extended Release of Water-Labile Quorum Sensing Inhibitors and
Enable Long-Term Modulation of Quorum Sensing in <i>Staphylococcus
aureus</i>
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Abstract
Materials and coatings that inhibit
bacterial colonization are
of interest in a broad range of biomedical, environmental, and industrial
applications. In view of the rapid increase in bacterial resistance
to conventional antibiotics, the development of new strategies that
target nonessential pathways in bacterial pathogensand that
thereby limit growth and reduce virulence through nonbiocidal meanshas
attracted considerable attention. Bacterial quorum sensing (QS) represents
one such target, and is intimately connected to virulence in many
human pathogens. Here, we demonstrate that the properties of nanoporous,
polymer-based superhydrophobic coatings can be exploited to host and
subsequently sustain the extended release of potent and water-labile
peptide-based inhibitors of QS (QSIs) in <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>. Our results demonstrate that these peptidic QSIs can be released
into surrounding media for periods of at least 8 months, and that
they strongly inhibit agr-based QS in <i>S. aureus</i> for
at least 40 days. These results also suggest that these extremely
nonwetting coatings can confer protection against the rapid hydrolysis
of these water-labile peptides, thereby extending their useful lifetimes.
Finally, we demonstrate that these peptide-loaded superhydrophobic
coatings can strongly modulate the QS-controlled formation of biofilm
in wild-type <i>S. aureus</i>. These nanoporous superhydrophobic
films provide a new, useful, and nonbiocidal approach to the design
of coatings that attenuate bacterial virulence. This approach has
the potential to be general, and could prove suitable for the encapsulation,
protection, and release of other classes of water-sensitive agents.
We anticipate that the materials, strategies, and concepts reported
here will enable new approaches to the long-term attenuation of QS
and associated bacterial phenotypes in a range of basic research and
applied contexts