Preventing the formation of bacterial biofilms in joint replacements

Today, metal implants play a vital role in providing aid in various instances. Total hip replacement has been on a rise with the aging population and the obesity pandemic. Although the technological advancements have proven successful in providing treatments for various revision surgeries associated with hip replacements, infections on such metal implants have been prevalent with no successful form of treatment available. The recent strides in silk-based biomaterials due to its unique characteristics and the potential for chemical modifications for drug delivery makes it an exciting candidate to address the biofilm-based infections on such joint replacements. The project aim is to investigate the potential to upscale the current practices in producing aqueous silk fibroin to be used in the medical setting. The variable incubation periods associated with the dissolution of the silk fibres also raised a need to investigate the variable followed by characterizing the chemical properties to work towards a set standard that could be replicated in the medical industry. With initial hurdle faced during the upscaling, it was deemed successful with solutions being prepared using 25g of degummed silk fibres. This was followed by investigation variable incubation times. The samples were characterised to examine chemical properties associated with the fibroin protein using FTIR spectrometer. All samples confirmed the presence of fibroin protein in the solution, no difference was noticed with the increased incubation periods. These findings created a base towards a standardised method which would be the first step towards a silk based drug delivery system to address infections in joint replacements.