Other strategies of antibacterial polyurethanes and future perspectives

4 Other strategies of antibacterial polyurethanes and future perspectives 

The success of dispersin B at clearing established biofilms and preventing formation of these stmctnres in vitro snggests that the enzyme could be a promising new treatment for staphylococcal infections on polyurethane-based medical devices. 

Small molecules, such as nitric oxide and salicylic acid, have exhibited strong antimicrobial effects and have shown the ability to readily disperse biofilms. An important advantage of these small molecnles is that bacteria often do not develop resistance to them. In addition, they are often more biocompatible and also resistant to thrombosis, for example, nitric oxide. It seems that small molecnle treatment of bacterial infections with controlled delivery of snitable doses of small molecule (e.g., nitric oxide) is a very desirable goal. Development of nitric oxide- or other small molecule-re-leasing polyurethanes will provide promising approaches to antibiotic therapies with improved biocompatibility. 

Because of the significant impact of biomaterial-indnced infections and the loss of efficacy of antibiotic-based conventional therapies, it is imperative that new strategies against bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation on biomaterial snrfaces are found. Antibacterial or anti-infection polynrethane biomaterials have been rapidly developed, similar to the most current infection-resistant biomaterial technologies, and their potential in 

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