Main-Chain Polysulfonium Salts: Development of Non-Ammonium Antibacterial Polymers Similar in Their Activity to Antibiotic Drugs Vancomycin and Kanamycin

Junki Oh, Anzar Khan

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    19 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Typically, quaternary ammonium polymers are employed for antibacterial purposes. However, a century of use has led bacteria to develop resistance to such materials. Therefore, attention is now turning toward other cationic moieties. In this context, the present work explores sulfur-based main-chain cationic polymers. The results indicate that sulfonium polymers with a β-hydroxy motif do not suffer from structural instability issues as is commonly observed in cationic polythioethers. Furthermore, they can be highly effective toward important Gram-positive bacterial strains such as Mycobacterium smegmatis, a model organism to develop drugs against rapidly spreading tuberculosis infections. More importantly, however, more challenging Gram-negative strains such as Escherichia coli can also be targeted by the polysulfoniums with equal effectiveness. Interestingly, side-chain sulfonium polyelectrolytes are observed to be devoid of any significant antibacterial activity. Finally, a comparison with kanamycin and vancomycin suggests the present polymers to be similarly effective as the bactericidal antibiotic drugs. Overall, these results indicate the effectiveness of the main-chain trivalent β-hydroxy sulfonium motif for the development of novel antibacterial polymers with a non-ammonium structure.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)3534-3542
    Number of pages9
    JournalBiomacromolecules
    Volume22
    Issue number8
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2021 Aug 9

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This research was funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korean government (MSIP) (NRF18R1D1A1B07048527). The authors thank Seung-Jin Kim and Prof. Min-Kyu Oh (Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Korea University) for help with the antibacterial measurements.

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2021 American Chemical Society.

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Bioengineering
    • Biomaterials
    • Polymers and Plastics
    • Materials Chemistry

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