Long-term
indwelling catheters or
stents often cause complications like
infection, encrustation,
hematuria,
pain, and so on. The source of these problems is bacteria, which can form biofilms on the
stents to reduce
antibiotic sensitivity and produce
urease to form encrustation by increasing the urine pH.
Urinary tract infection (UTI) can aggravate the body damage and even seriously endanger lives, and the encrustation will block the
stents, which can cause
hydronephrosis and renal function damage. Therefore, the prevention of UTI and encrustation represents a great challenge in clinical ureteral
stent uses. In this work, a clickable mussel-inspired
peptide and
antimicrobial peptide (
AMP) were used to functionalize the commercial
stents' surfaces to inhibit
long-term infection and encrustation caused by bacteria.
Copper (Cu)
ions were used to coordinate the mussel-inspired
peptide to improve the stability. The
AMP with an azido group was clicked to the mussel-inspired Cu-coordinated
peptide coating through click chemistry. The bio-inspired antibacterial coating was constructed with excellent stability, bactericidal properties, and improved biological compatibility. In in vitro and in vivo experiments, it was further found that the coating showed bactericidal and encrustation reduction abilities. This study thus developed an effective, safe, and stable
AMP coating on urinary
stents/
catheters capable of long-term antibacterial and encrustation inhibition.