Abstract
Oligophenylene ethynylenes, known as OPEs, are a sequence of aromatic rings linked by triple bonds, the properties of which can be modulated by varying the length of the rigid main chain or/and the nature and position of the substituents on the aromatic units. They are luminescent molecules with high quantum yields and can be designed to enter a cell and act as antimicrobial and antiviral compounds, as biocompatible fluorescent probes directed towards target organelles in living cells, as labelling agents, as selective sensors for the detection of fibrillar and prefibrillar amyloid in the proteic field and in a fluorescence turn-on system for the detection of saccharides, as photosensitizers in photodynamic therapy (due to their capacity to highly induce toxicity after light activation), and as drug delivery systems. The antibacterial properties of OPEs have been the most studied against very popular and resistant pathogens, and in this paper the achievements of these studies are reviewed, together with almost all the other roles held by such oligomers. In the recent decade, their antifungal and antiviral effects have attracted the attention of researchers who believe OPEs to be possible biocides of the future. The review describes, for instance, the preliminary results obtained with OPEs against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights
The idea of using aryl and ethynyl groups in an alternating fashion to build polymers such as polyphenylene ethynylenes (PPEs) and their corresponding oligomers (OPEs) was introduced in the 1980s, and this led to the discovery of a class of compounds with fascinating properties as materials in different areas, such as sensors, light-emitting devices, and polarizers for LC displays
The results suggested that oligophenylene ethynylenes (OPEs) 27a has a good level of antimicrobial activity on both Gram-positive and Gram-negative MDR bacteria, confirming that the activity against the first ones was greater than that of Gram-negative bacteria
The preliminary results of this study indicate that the tested OPEs 19a,b and 23d show biocidal activity against SARS-CoV-2 under near-UV light irradiation, and the antiviral activity of such compounds is due to a combination of the hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions between the oligomers and the SARSCoV-2 proteins
Summary
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