Low-Molecular-Weight Polylysines with Excellent Antibacterial Properties and Low Hemolysis.

ACS Biomater Sci Eng

Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin 130022, P. R. China.

Published: February 2022

The steady development of bacterial resistance has become a global public health issue, and new antibacterial agents that are active against drug-resistant bacteria and less susceptible to bacterial resistance are urgently needed. Here, a series of low-molecular-weight cationic polylysines (C-PLL) with different hydrophobic end groups (C) and degrees of polymerization (PLL) was synthesized and used in antibacterial applications. All the obtained C-PLL have antibacterial activity. Among them, C-PLL displays the best antibacterial effect for Gram-positive bacteria, that is, () and methicillin-resistant (MRSA), and highest selectivity against Gram-positive bacteria. A mechanistic study revealed that the C-PLL destroys the integrity of the bacterial cell membrane and causes effective bacterial death. Owing to this membrane-disrupting property, C-PLL showed rapid bacterial killing kinetics and was not likely to develop resistance after repeat treatment (up to 13 generations). Moreover, C-PLL demonstrated a significant therapeutic effect on an MRSA infection mouse model, which further proved that this synthetic polymer could be used as an effective weapon against bacterial infections.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.1c01527DOI Listing

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