Effective and biocompatible antibacterial surfaces via facile synthesis and surface modification of peptide polymers.

Abstract

It is an urgent need to tackle drug-resistance microbial infections that are associated with implantable biomedical devices. Host defense peptide-mimicking polymers have been actively explored in recent years to fight against drug-resistant microbes. Our recent report on lithium hexamethyldisilazide-initiated superfast polymerization on amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides enables the quick synthesis of host defense peptide-mimicking peptide polymers. Here we reported a facile and cost-effective thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) surface modification of peptide polymer (DLL: BLG = 90 : 10) using plasma surface activation and substitution reaction between thiol and bromide groups. The peptide polymer-modified TPU surfaces exhibited board-spectrum antibacterial property as well as effective contact-killing ability in vitro. Furthermore, the peptide polymer-modified TPU surfaces showed excellent biocompatibility, displaying no hemolysis and cytotoxicity. In vivo study using methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) for subcutaneous implantation infectious model showed that peptide polymer-modified TPU surfaces revealed obvious suppression of infection and great histocompatibility, compared to bare TPU surfaces. We further explored the antimicrobial mechanism of the peptide polymer-modified TPU surfaces, which revealed a surface contact-killing mechanism by disrupting the bacterial membrane. These results demonstrated great potential of the peptide-modified TPU surfaces for practical application to combat bacterial infections that are associated with implantable materials and devices.

• Authors: Ziyi Lu, Yueming Wu, Zihao Cong, Yuxin Qian, Xue Wu, Ning Shao, Zhongqian Qiao, Haodong Zhang, Yunrui She, Kang Chen, Hengxue Xiang, Bin Sun, Qian Yu, Yuan Yuan, Haodong Lin, Meifang Zhu, Runhui Liu
• Journal: Bioactive materials (Bioact Mater) Vol. 6 Issue 12 Pg. 4531-4541 (Dec 2021) ISSN: 2452-199X [Electronic] China
• PMID: 34027238 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: © 2021 The Authors.