MIT's antimicrobial 'paint' kills flu and bacteria

A new antimicrobial paint developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) can kill influenza viruses that land on surfaces coated with it, potentially offering a new weapon in the battle against a disease that kills nearly 40,000 Americans per year.

If applied to doorknobs or other surfaces where germs tend to accumulate, the new substance could help fight the spread of the flu, said Jianzhu Chen, MIT professor of biology.

Most fatal flu cases occur in the elderly or in people with weakened immune systems. Available flu vaccines are only 30-40% effective among those groups, and only 70-80% effective among healthy adults.

The antimicrobial paint can be sprayed or brushed onto surfaces and consists of spiky polymers that poke holes in the membranes that surround influenza viruses.

In testing, researchers observed a more than 10,000-fold drop in the number of influenza viruses exposed to the polymer coating, according to Alexander Klibanov, MIT professor of chemistry and bioengineering and the senior author of the paper.

The polymers are also effective against many types of bacteria, including human pathogens Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, deadly strains of which are often resistant to antibiotics.

“One of the benefits of the new polymer coating is that it is highly unlikely that bacteria will develop resistance to it,” Klibanov added. Bacteria can become resistant to traditional antibiotics by adjusting the biochemical pathways targeted by antibiotics, but it would be difficult for bacteria to evolve a way to stop the polymer spikes from tearing holes in their membranes.

Once the polymer coating is applied to a surface, it should last about as long as a regular coat of paint, Klibanov said. Accumulation of dead bacteria and viruses diminishes the effectiveness of the nanometer-sized polymer spikes, so the surface would need to be washed with soapy water every once in a while to remove dead microbes.