Anti-Infective Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Nosocomial infections can compromise the health and recovery of patients in a multiplicity of medical scenarios. Bacterial contamination of medical device surfaces is a primary cause of nosocomial infections. Infection is recognized as the most severe and irreducible complication associated with the use of biomaterials, particularly in prosthetic surgery. Nonetheless, bacterial colonization represents a serious problem even for non-surgically invasive medical devices such urinary catheters, which cause a large proportion of all hospital-acquired infections and up to 13,000 deaths a year in the USA alone. Attracting increasing interest over the years, anti-infective biomaterials appear as the only winning strategy to prevent implant infections and significantly reduce their rates of occurrence.    Various strategies have been devised to convert the surfaces of biomedical devices into antimicrobial surfaces. Anti-fouling and bacteria-repelling surfaces, antibacterial self-sterilizing coatings, bulk materials endowed with intrinsic antibacterial properties, nanostructured surfaces, local delivery systems of bactericidal, and anti-biofilm or immune-modulatory molecules are just some of the anti-infective solutions that are being proposed. The doping of biomaterials with antimicrobial substances for prophylaxis of infections through local delivery was initially carried out in dentistry and then extended, with the use of antibiotic-loaded cements, to orthopaedic surgery, where it has become a common practice. An interesting opportunity is currently offered by delivery systems based on antibacterial substances that are different from conventional antibiotics, for instance, new antimicrobial peptides, biofunctional molecules, and phytocompounds, and may eventually act synergistically to perioperative antibiotic treatments.

Given the broad diversity of medical devices, there is clearly not only one solution that suits all circumstances, and there is a need to fine tune the anti-infective properties of biomaterials based on the requirements of the specific type of application. An adequate, robust antibacterial activity has to be achieved without compromising the biocompatibility of the system.  

The scope of this Special Issue, entitled “Anti-infective materials”, is to provide state-of-the-art research on the production, characterization, and application of biomaterials designed for their anti-infective properties and, at the same time, their biocompatibility. This Special Issue aims to thoroughly survey the innovative antibacterial biomaterials and the anti-infective technologies for infection-resistant and anti-infective biomaterials.

Prof. Dr. Carla Renata Arciola
Prof. Dr. Lucio Montanaro
Dr. Davide Campoccia
Guest Editors

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