New Polymeric Films with Antibacterial Activity Obtained by UV-induced Copolymerization of Acryloyloxyalkyltriethylammonium Salts with 2-Hydroethyl Methacrylate.

Francesco Galiano,Jan Hoinkis,Raffaella Mancuso,Bartolo Gabriele,Maria Grazia Guzzo,Fabrizio Lucente,Maria Adele Losso,Ephraim Gukelberger,Alberto Figoli

doi:10.3390/ijms20112696

Abstract

New polymeric films with antibacterial activity have been prepared, by simple UV-induced copolymerization of readily available ω-(acryloyloxy)-N,N,N-triethylalcan-1-aminium bromides (or acryloyloxyalkyltriethylammonium bromides, AATEABs) with commercially available 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), at different relative amounts. In particular, the antibacterial activity of polymeric films derived from 11-(acryloyloxy)-N,N,N-triethylundecan-1-aminium bromide (or acryloyloxyundecyltriethylammonium bromide, AUTEAB; bearing a C-11 alkyl chain linker between the acrylate polymerization function and the quaternary ammonium moiety) and 12-(acryloyloxy)-N,N,N-triethyldodecan-1-aminium bromide (or acryloyloxydodecyltriethylammonium bromide, ADTEB, bearing a C-12 alkyl chain linker) has been assessed against Gram-negative Escherichia Coli and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus cells. The results obtained have shown a clear concentration-dependent activity against both bacterial strains, the films obtained from homopolymerization of pure AUTEAB and ADTEAB being the most effective. Moreover, ADTEAB-based films showed a higher antibacterial activity with respect to the AUTEAB-based ones. Interestingly, however, both types of films presented a significant activity not only toward Gram-positive S. aureus, but also toward Gram-negative E. Coli cells.

Highlights

The importance of developing new antimicrobial systems is becoming more and more important, owing to the well-known increasing phenomena of resistance to antibiotics associated with an augmented virulence of several pathogenic microbial species [1,2,3,4,5]
The antibacterial activity of polymeric films derived from 11-(acryloyloxy)-N,N,N-triethylundecan-1-aminium bromide and 12-(acryloyloxy)-N,N,N-triethyldodecan-1-aminium bromide has been assessed against Gram-negative Escherichia Coli and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus cells
Considering the promising antibacterial activity of AUTEAB and acryloyloxydodecyltriethylammonium bromide (ADTEAB) [46,50], and the possibility to copolymerize them for obtaining new antibacterial materials [47,48,49], in this work we have studied the development of new polymeric films chemically incorporating these Polymerizable quaternary ammonium salts (PQASs), for potential applications in biomedical, food packaging and textile field

Summary

Introduction

The importance of developing new antimicrobial systems is becoming more and more important, owing to the well-known increasing phenomena of resistance to antibiotics associated with an augmented virulence of several pathogenic microbial species [1,2,3,4,5]. Antimicrobial polymers have recently attracted high interest, in view of their significant, efficient, and broad-spectrum activity against resistant microorganisms [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. Polymerizable quaternary ammonium salts (PQASs) are a interesting subclass of QASs, which is characterized by the presence, besides the quaternary group, of a suitable polymerizable function. This may allow their incorporation into a polymeric framework by means of copolymerization techniques, leading to polymeric materials with antimicrobial properties [43,44,45]

Methods

Results

Conclusion