Novel Nitric Oxide-Releasing Polyvinyl Alcohol Films for Disrupting Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilms

Abstract

Novel nitric oxide (NO)-releasing polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films were prepared by blending sodium nitroprusside (SNP), which serves as an NO donor, into a PVA solution. The microtiter plate (MTP) was used to measure the biofilm-forming capacity of eight Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates on PVA film-coated MTP, MTP coated with nitric oxide-releasing PVA films, and catheters coated with NO-releasing PVA films. The qPCR was employed to determine the effect of PVA, nitric oxide, and NO mixed with PVA on the gene expressions of pslA, pelA, algD, nirS, and bdlA genes.  All isolates developed strong biofilms on uncoated MTP, with a highly significant decrease on NO- releasing-PVA film-coated MTP and catheters coated with NO-releasing-PVA film compared to PVA film-coated MTP and uncoated MTP. Significant downregulation of pelA and pslA expression was determined upon exposure to the SNP-PVA and SNP alone. However, algD displayed insignificant downregulation after exposure to the SNP-PVA blend and SNP alone versus the PVA solution. Furthermore, nirS and bdlA exhibited insignificant upregulation after exposure to SNP-PVA and SNP alone versus the PVA solution.