Towards an antimicrobial 'microglove'.

Ewoud Reilman,Herb Ulmer,Joke G Hagting,Theo Flipsen,Jan Maarten Van Dijl

doi:10.1038/srep16679

Abstract

A large proportion of hospital-related infections are acquired and spread due to the direct contacts between patients and healthcare workers. Accordingly, proper infection prevention measures, and especially hand hygiene, are key to limit the spread of infections in nosocomial settings. However, healthcare workers frequently experience difficulties in complying strictly to hand disinfection protocols. This study was therefore aimed at the development of a hand rub with antimicrobial activity that forms a protective film on the hand, a so-called microglove, in order to enhance hand hygiene. For this purpose, various co-polymer formulations consisting of different ratios of Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and a branched C20 derivatized maleate (M20) in combination with the known biocide benzalkonium chloride (BKC) were tested for their combined film-forming and antimicrobial activities. The results of a series of novel contamination and transmission assays show that a formulation of 80% PVP and 20% M20 co-polymer with 0.9% BKC fulfils the elementary requirements for an antimicrobial microglove.

Highlights

The use of aggressive hand-washing products makes the skin more prone to colonization by pathogenic micro-organisms[16]
Coatings with the PVPM20 polymer, but without benzalkonium chloride (BKC) had no effect on growth of S. aureus HG001 at 37 °C as the cells that were introduced into the wells with only PVPM20-90:10 showed comparable growth rates as cells introduced into the untreated wells (Fig. 1A)
Growth inhibition was even further enhanced by using a PVPM20-90:10 formulation with 1.0% BKC, where even the 5 μ l coating of a 100fold diluted formulation was sufficient to stop the growth of S. aureus (Fig. 1D)

Summary

Introduction

The use of aggressive hand-washing products makes the skin more prone to colonization by pathogenic micro-organisms[16]. To circumvent the drawbacks of the repeated use of soaps or other disinfectants, the present study was aimed at the development of a new antimicrobial hand coating – a so-called ‘microglove’ - with a protective effect that would last in the minute to hour time range. Its unique physical and mechanical properties make PVP an ideal candidate for a polymer-based hand rub. We tested various co-polymer formulations consisting of different ratios of PVP and a branched C20 derivatized maleate named M20 for their film and texture properties. BKC has been applied in a large range of cosmetic products, non-alcoholic hand sanitizers, skin antiseptics, wet towels, mouth washes, and ophthalmic preparations, even though it can cause irritations of the skin[21]. Using simulated contamination and transmission assays, a promising candidate ‘microglove’ formulation was identified, which consists of a co-polymer of 80% PVP and 20% M20 supplemented with 0.9% BKC (in short PVPM20-80:20-0.9% BKC)

Methods

Results

Conclusion