Omniphobic Coating to Prevent Central Line Catheter Infections

Central venous cathetersCVLsprovide lifesaving medicationsnutrition and laboratory testing for millions of patients a yearAs with any medical devicethey can become infectedinfections year in USincreasing patientsandaposmortality and length of hospital stayThe goal of our project is to improve outcomes for patients with peripherally inserted central cathetersPICCsa common type of CVLby reducing dangerous complications related to central line associated bloodstream infectionsCLABSImortality rateWe believe that stopping adhesion to the surface of the catheter will reduce complications related to infection patients with cathetersOur omniphobic coating stops adhesion of all manner of pathogensbacteria and fungito the surface of medical devices by immobilizing a thin layer of highly inert and biocompatible perfluorinated liquidIn our previous workwe demonstrated that our novel tethered liquid perfluorocarbonTLPcoating resists pathogen adhesion in vitro and resists the adhesion of blood clotting components to the surface of medical devicesultimately resulting in significantly less thrombosis in a challenging in vivo arteriovenous shunt modelIn Phase Iwe propose the development of a first in class TLP coated PICC catheter that significantly reduces or eliminates catheter associated infection in patientspotentially resulting shorter hospital stays and less mortality related to hospital acquired infectionsMilestones for Phase I includeshowing TLP coated catheters resist biofouling of many CLABSI relevant pathogensdemonstrating that the TLP coated catheters maintain biofouling resistance under extended blood serum flowIf Phase I is successfulin Phase II the TLP coated catheter will be further evaluated for in vivo biocompatibility in preparation for FDA approval and potentially clinical practiceIf successful in this challenging applicationthe TLP coating could help patients in many other vascular applications and more broadly in medical devices Central venous catheters provide lifesaving therapy to millions of patients a yearDespite dramatic interventions in terms of sterile procedurethese catheters continue to become infectedresulting in high mortality ratesThe proposed research is to develop a non biofoulingomniphobic coated catheter that will significantly reduce infection rates in patientsandaposwho need catheters