Micro organism that multiply on surfaces are a significant headache in well being care once they achieve a foothold on, for instance, implants or in catheters. Researchers at Chalmers College of Know-how in Sweden have discovered a brand new weapon to combat these hotbeds of bacterial development—one that doesn’t depend on antibiotics or poisonous metals.
The important thing lies in a totally new utility of this yr’s Nobel Prize-winning materials: metal-organic frameworks. These supplies can bodily impale, puncture and kill micro organism earlier than they’ve time to connect to the floor.
As a result of as soon as micro organism connect to a floor, they begin to multiply whereas encasing themselves in what is called a biofilm—a viscous, slimy coating that protects the micro organism and makes them tough to kill. Biofilms thrive notably nicely in humid environments and may pose severe challenges in well being care.
For instance, micro organism can connect to medical gadgets similar to catheters, hip replacements and dental implants, and result in hospital-acquired infections (HAI), also referred to as nosocomial infections—a widespread drawback worldwide that causes nice struggling and excessive well being care prices, and an elevated threat of the event of antibiotic resistance.
Biofilms also can kind on ship hulls, the place they will result in troublesome algal biofouling and barnacle development, slowing down the ship whereas rising its gasoline consumption.
Moreover, antifouling paints containing poisonous biocides are sometimes used on ship hulls to fight this drawback, with an related threat of dangerous substances leaching into the marine setting. Biofilms in industrial piping programs are additionally a widespread drawback that may trigger corrosion, clog the programs, scale back their effectivity, and improve power consumption, for instance.
New means to make use of metal-organic frameworks
Researchers at Chalmers College of Know-how have now discovered a brand new strategy to assault biofilms by coating surfaces with nanostructures—metal-organic frameworks—that kill micro organism mechanically.
The examine, printed within the journal Superior Science, was carried out in a collaboration between two groups of researchers on the College: Professor Ivan Mijakovic’s and Professor Lars Öhrström’s.
“Our examine exhibits that these nanostructures can act like tiny spikes that bodily injure the micro organism, fairly merely puncturing them in order that they die. It’s a totally new means of utilizing such metal-organic frameworks,” says the examine’s lead creator, Zhejian Cao, Ph.D. in Supplies Engineering and researcher at Chalmers.
The coating is constructed in a means that enables it to be utilized to quite a lot of surfaces and built-in into different supplies. A serious benefit of the tactic is that it prevents or reduces biofilm formation with out the necessity to use antibiotics or poisonous metals.
“It fights a significant world drawback, because it eliminates the chance that controlling micro organism will result in antibiotic resistance,” says Cao.
Steel-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a new class of supplies with distinctive properties the place metallic ions are interlinked into three-dimensional buildings with giant cavities and channels within the materials.
The Chalmers researchers explored a totally completely different operate for MOFs of their examine.
“There have been earlier makes an attempt to make use of metal-organic frameworks for antibacterial functions, however in these circumstances the micro organism had been killed by poisonous metallic ions or antimicrobial brokers launched by the MOFs. As an alternative, now we have grown one MOF on prime of one other, which ends up in the formation of sharp nanotips that may puncture and kill the micro organism once they strategy,” says Cao. The nanotips had been created by controlling the crystalline development within the materials, and a significant problem was discovering the proper distance between the nanotips to maximise their impact.
“If the gap between the nanotips is simply too giant, micro organism can slip via and connect to the floor. If the gap is simply too small, nevertheless, the mechanical stress exerted by the nanotips on the bacterial cell capsule could also be diminished in order that the micro organism survive—the identical precept that lets you lie on a mattress of nails with out getting damage,” says Cao.
Potential to attain large-scale manufacturing
Lars Öhrström is a co-author of the examine and has labored with metal-organic frameworks for 30 years. He emphasizes that there are quite a few sensible benefits to utilizing MOF coatings for controlling micro organism on surfaces in comparison with different options.
“These coatings may be produced at a lot decrease temperatures than, for instance, the graphene arrays beforehand developed at Chalmers. This facilitates large-scale manufacturing and makes it potential to use the coatings to temperature-sensitive supplies such because the plastics utilized in medical implants. As well as, the natural polymers in metal-organic frameworks may be created from recycled plastics, having the potential to contribute to a round economic system,” says Lars Öhrström.
The examine was carried out in Professor Lars Öhrström’s analysis group on the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and in Professor Ivan Mijakovic’s group on the Division of Life Sciences.
Extra info: Zhejian Cao et al, Mechano‐Bactericidal Surfaces Achieved by Epitaxial Development of Steel–Natural Frameworks, Superior Science (2025). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202505976
