Reduced Adhesion of Staphylococcus aureus to ZnO/PVC Nanocomposites

In hospitals and clinics worldwide, medical device surfaces have become a rapidly growing source of nosocomial infections. In particular, patients requiring mechanical ventilation (and, thus, intubation with an endotracheal tube) for extended lengths of time are faced with a high probability of contracting ventilator-associated pneumonia. In this study, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) taken from a conventional endotracheal tube was embedded with varying concentrations of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles. Staphylococcus aureus biofilms were then grown on these nanocomposite surfaces during a 24-hour culture. Bacterial proliferation on the samples embedded with the highest concentration of ZnO nanoparticles was 87% less when compared to the control, indicating that this technique is effective at reducing biofilm formation on PVC surfaces without the use of antibiotics.