| Summary: | Abstract Microbial keratitis occurs from the infection of the cornea by fungi and or bacteria. It remains one of the most common global causes of irreversible blindness accounting for 3.5% (36 million) of blind people as of 2015. This paper looks at the use of a bacteria binding polymer designed to bind Staphylococcus aureus and remove it from the corneal surface. Mechanical unbinding measurements were used to probe the interactions of a thermo-active bacteria-binding polymer, highly-branched poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide), functionalised with modified vancomycin end groups (HB-PNIPAM-Van) to bacteria placed on rabbit corneal surfaces studied ex-vivo. This was conducted during sequential temperature phase transitions of HB-PNIPAM-Van-S. aureus below, above and below the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) in 3 stages, in-vitro, using a novel micro-bead force spectroscopy (MBFS) approach via atomic force microscopy (AFM). The effect of temperature on the functionality of HB-PNIPAM-Van-S. aureus showed that the polymer-bacteria complex reduced the work done in removing bacterial aggregates at T > LCST (p < 0.05), exhibiting reversibility at T < LCST (p < 0.05). At T < LCST, the breaking force, number of unbinding events, percentage fitted segments in the short and long range, and the percentage of unbinding events occurring in the long range (> 2.5 µm) increased (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the LCST phase transition temperature showed 100 × more unbinding events in the long-range z-length (> 2.5 µm) compared to S. aureus aggregates only. Here, we present the first study using AFM to assess the reversible mechanical impact of a thermo-active polymer-binding bacteria on a natural corneal surface.
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