Mrinal Gaurav Srivastava

Gaststudent Master (KU Leuven, Belgien)

Development of smart drug-releasing materials for dental implants.

 

Betreuer: Prof. Dr. ir. Annabel Braem (KU Leuven) & Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Aldo R. Boccaccini​ (FAU, Erlangen-Nuremberg)

Laborbetreuer: M. Sc. Merve Kübra Aktan, Dr. Nazirah Kamarudin (KU Leuven) & Dr. Kai Zheng (FAU, Erlangen-Nuremberg)

A steady rise in the use of dental implants has been observed which now nearly equals the use of artificial knee and hip implants placed inside the human body annually [1]. In the case of a dental implant, the situation is more challenging due to constant exposure of the oral environment to hostile conditions which lead to development of pathogenic colonies causing increased risk of peri-implant mucositis and in worse cases peri-implantitis [2]. These conditions cause inflammation and bone loss around the implant and finally loss of the implant. This project focuses on preventing the growth of biofilm in its early stages on the implant surface. Porous titanium substrates will be injected with sol-gel technique prepared Ludox solution[3] and mesoporous silica nanoparticles[4] which would act as a diffusion barrier providing a controlled release of an antimicrobial agent – Chlorhexidine. Further functionalization by chitosan, a pH-responsive biopolymer, will be done which would enable smart drug-release only at low pH conditions which are prevalent in a biofilm thus preventing cytotoxicity to the host cells and bacteria from developing resistance against the drug.

[1] Gupta A, Dhanraj M, Sivagami G. Status of surface treatment in endosseous implant: a literary overview. Indian J Dent Res. 2010;21(3):433.

[2] Renvert S, Lindahl C, Persson GR. Occurrence of cases with peri-implant mucositis or peri-implantitis in a 21-26 years  follow-up study. J Clin Periodontol. 2018;45(2):233-240.

[3] Braem, A., De Cremer, K., Delattin, N., De Brucker, K., Neirinck, B., Vandamme, K., Martens, J.A., Michiels, J., Vleugels, J., Cammue, B.P. and Thevissen, K. Novel anti-infective implant substrates: Controlled release of antibiofilm compounds from mesoporous silica-containing macroporous titanium. Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces. 2015;126:481-488.

[4] Sazegar MR, Mahmoudian S, Mahmoudi A, Triwahyono S, Jalil AA, Mukti RR, Kamarudin NH, Ghoreishi MK. Catalyzed Claisen–Schmidt reaction by protonated aluminate mesoporous silica nanomaterial focused on the (E)-chalcone synthesis as a biologically active compound. RSC advances. 2016;6(13):11023-31.​