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Biofilm Disruption Utilizing α/β Chimeric Polypeptide Molecular Brushes

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Abstract

Gram-negative bacteria can cause serious infections and are well known problems in biomedical practices. Biofilms of gram-negative bacteria are notorious for their frequently encountered resistance toward antibiotics. We demonstrate that α/β chimeric polypeptide molecular brush (α/β CPMB) exerts potent activities against antibiotic-resistant gram-negative bacteria. MTT viability assay, bacterial colony counting, and live/dead staining all indicate that α/β CPMB not only inhibits biofilm formation of gram-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii, but also effectively disrupts mature biofilms that are highly resistant to one of the most active antibiotics—colistin. The superior antibacterial performance of the α/β CPMB implies its potential topical applications in treating biofilms.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21574038, 21774031, and 21861162010), the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (No. 18ZR1410300), the “Eastern Scholar Professorship” from Shanghai local government (No. TP2014034), the national special fund for State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering (No. 2060204), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 22221818014).

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, Research Center for Biomedical Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Si Zhang, Xi-Mian Xiao, Fan Qi, Peng-Cheng Ma, Wei-Wei Zhang, Cheng-Zhi Dai, Dan-Feng Zhang & Run-Hui Liu

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  1. Si Zhang
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  2. Xi-Mian Xiao
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Correspondence to Run-Hui Liu.

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Zhang, S., Xiao, XM., Qi, F. et al. Biofilm Disruption Utilizing α/β Chimeric Polypeptide Molecular Brushes. Chin J Polym Sci 37, 1105–1112 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-019-2278-0

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