COVER STORY
TridAnt INFECTION PROTECTION ARJUN LUTHRA, COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR, BIOINTERACTIONS, EXPLAINS HOW MULTI-ACTION TECHNOLOGY IS A STRAIGHTFORWARD SOLUTION TO FIGHT COVID-19, PREVENT FUTURE PANDEMICS AND ENHANCE GLOBAL HEALTHCARE INFRASTRUCTURE.
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he case for revolutionary technologies and solutions that greatly enhance our quality of living has never been more important than now. Innovations that protect and enhance our daily routines are in constant demand, and are especially critical considering the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pandemic has persisted, our healthcare services and innovations have battled to keep up with viral mutations, as well as mitigate impact to other areas of healthcare. This highlights the importance of a preventative measure to be in place so we can all return to a better normal. Such a prevention measure must focus on confronting the current COVID-19 vaccine, preventing mutated versions of the pathogen, and enhancing global infrastructure to prevent another pandemic from occurring. THE ROLE OF MATERIALS Materials play a critical role in improving the performance of technology and can improve the applicability of the products. The antimicrobial efficacy of materials
involves critical interactions between the pathogen and surface interface, and the successes of applications are dependent on a variety of biological events occurring at this interface. These events intensify the complications, which must be addressed during the innovation and development stages. The challenge of infection prevention will help long-term prevention mechanisms on medical devices as well as consumer applications. The biological events which occur at the pathogen-surface interface is critical to improving the prevention technology against pathogens. Biological responses are complex processes which are governed by a variety of factors. These factors range from surface properties – which include the chemistry, topography, wettability, and composition of a surface – to the biological entities present at the interface. Infections on surfaces have long been studied as these pose a significant challenge which impedes long-term medical device applications. A variety of preventative techniques used on medical devices have proven not to be significantly effective and highlight the need for an innovative solution. It has been seen in a randomised study of surface treatments to prevent infections that silver surface treatments have failed to reduce infection rates. It has also been seen that the use of silver-impregnated collagen cuffs can impede catheter fixation due to the killing of fibroblasts and cause the catheter to dislodge. Therefore, highlighting the toxic impacts of silver technology on eukaryotic cells. Furthermore, it has been recommended that any catheter which has caused bacteremia should be immediately removed and only replaced once results of blood cultures normalised. This highlights the difficulty previous technologies experienced when combatting infections safely on a surface over long periods of time. Such an approach has had limited success, requiring the use of antibiotics which leads to resistance and further complications. The biological events which occur on a surface are a complex result of interactions between the surface and the proteins and cells, which are present at the pathogen-surface interface. These complex challenges require a multi-phase material which considers all these varying factors in one straightforward technology. Multi-phase materials provide a highperformance surface which prevents pathogen growth, enhances protection durability, and uses safe components all in one straight-forward solution. THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIPS BioInteractions Ltd. and Phoel Ltd. have partnered to provide TridAnt, the world’s most advanced infection prevention infrastructure that enhances the control of pathogens in an environment. TridAnt technology ensures broad spectrum protection of up to 99.999% against bacteria, viruses and fungi as well as enhanced durability of up to 365 days – all whilst using technology proven to be safe to use on medical devices.
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