Antimicrobial biomaterials based on transition metal-containing polyurethanes and ciprofloxacin loading

Polymers find widespread applications in the medical device field. However, they can be easily colonized by bacteria and fungi, thus frequently causing severe infections in patients. Recently, antibiotic-treated polymers have been proved to reduce bacterial colonization. However, a moderate risk of emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens has been point out due to the low antibiotic systemic levels reached in patients after a prolonged time of implant of antibiotic-treated devices. In order to reduce this risk, we developed antibacterial polyurethanes containing a combination of antimicrobial drugs having different mechanisms of action: i) ions of transition metals (Ag+, Cu2+ and Fe3+), known for their broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity against bacterial, fungal and viral agents, together with their no cross-resistance with antibiotics1 and ii) the broad-spectrum antibiotic ciprofloxacin (CPF).