Abstract
In this study, a novel polystyrene-block-quaternized polyisoprene amphipathic block copolymer (PS-b-PIN) is derived from anionic polymerization. Quaternized polymers are prepared through post-quaternization on a functionalized polymer side chain. Moreover, the antibacterial activity of quaternized polymers without red blood cell (RBCs) hemolysis can be controlled by block composition, side chain length, and polymer morphology. The solvent environment is highly related to the polymer morphology, forming micelles or other structures. The polymersome formation would decrease the hemolysis and increase the electron density or quaternized groups density as previous research and our experiment revealed. Herein, the PS-b-PIN with N,N-dimethyldodecylamine as side chain would form a polymersome structure in the aqueous solution to display the best inhibiting bacterial growth efficiency without hemolytic effect. Therefore, the different single-chain quaternized groups play an important role in the antibacterial action, and act as a controllable factor.
Highlights
Antibacterial agents are substances that can be added into materials to produce antibacterial properties in order to directly kill bacteria or inhibit the growth of bacteria for a long time
NIH 3T3 cells, derived from NIH Swiss mouse embryo cultures, were cultured in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) and penicillin and streptomycin (100 μg/mL) at 37 ◦C in an atmosphere of 5% CO2, and the culture medium was changed on alternate days
Hemolytic activity was evaluated by examining hemoglobin release from rat red blood cells (RBCs) by direct contact to PS-b-PIN
Summary
Antibacterial agents are substances that can be added into materials to produce antibacterial properties in order to directly kill bacteria or inhibit the growth of bacteria for a long time. Instead of developing new antibiotics, the use of alternative antibacterial agents with different mechanisms to eliminate bacteria, such as silver nanocomposites, host-defense peptides, and synthetic polyelectrolytes, have drawn increasing attention recently [1,2,3,4,5]. The balance between hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity of the polyelectrolyte is the key to achieving good anti-bacterial activity and low cytotoxicity concurrently, which may be achieved by molecular engineering on the polyelectrolytes Homopolymers such as polynorbornene can be feasibly synthesized via homopolymerization of designated monomers [18]. Combining the useful monomers with functional groups selectivity is the advantage of random copolymer, but the lack of precise synthesis makes it difficult to control the antibacterial activity, hemolysis, and even cytotoxicity. Through precise synthesis of block copolymer, the antimicrobial activities can be controlled and polymer morphology manipulated to examine the relationship between them
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