Use of water soluble pharmaceuticals in the synthesis of bioactive fluorinated surface modifiers

Bioactive Fluorinated Surface Modifiers (BFSMs) are additives that serve to provide biological functionality onto biomedical polyurethane surfaces. They contain fluorinated end-groups that enable their migration to the surface of a film by means of surface energetics and thermodynamic incompatibility. Bioactive compounds were immobilized onto the backbone of the fluorinated additive using a carbodiimide/succinimide coupling mechanism suitable for the bioconjugation of water-soluble agents, namely low molecular weight heparin. The additives were analyzed using gel permeation chromatography, water contact angle, acid group titration, proton nuclear magnetic resonance, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and toluidine blue colorimetric assays.; The coupling mechanism was successful in immobilizing norfloxacin and heparin molecules onto the surface modifying additives. Analyses showed that the uppermost region of the film's surface hosted the drug, indicating that the migration of the bioactive additive was feasible. Future work will involve optimization of the coupling reactions and biological/bioactivity testing on the heparin-BFSMs.