Issue 5, 2023

Development of lipidated polycarbonates with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance is a global challenge owing to the lack of discovering effective antibiotic agents. Antimicrobial polymers containing the cationic groups and hydrophobic groups which mimic natural host-defense peptides (HDPs) show great promise in combating bacteria. Herein, we report the synthesis of lipidated polycarbonates bearing primary amino groups and hydrophobic moieties (including both the terminal long alkyl chain and hydrophobic groups in the sequences) by ring-opening polymerization. The hydrophobic/hydrophilic group ratios were adjusted deliberately and the lengths of the alkyl chains at the end of the polymers were modified to achieve the optimized combination for the lead polymers, which exhibited potent and broad-spectrum bactericidal activity against a panel of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The polymers only showed very limited hemolytic activity, demonstrating their excellent selectivity. Comprehensive analyses using biochemical and biophysical assays revealed the strong interaction between the polymers and bacteria membranes. Moreover, the polymers also showed strong biofilm inhibition activity and did not readily induce antibiotic resistance. Our results suggest that lipidated polycarbonates could be a new class of antimicrobial agents.

Graphical abstract: Development of lipidated polycarbonates with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 des. 2022
Accepted
06 jan. 2023
First published
10 jan. 2023

Biomater. Sci., 2023,11, 1840-1852

Development of lipidated polycarbonates with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity

R. Gao, X. Li, M. Xue, N. Shen, M. Wang, J. Zhang, C. Cao and J. Cai, Biomater. Sci., 2023, 11, 1840 DOI: 10.1039/D2BM01995G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements