Biomimetic Antibiotics - Synthesis and Characterization of Antibiotic Polymers with Low Resistance Development Potential

该项目的目的是制备具有抗菌性能的合成聚合物。这种仿生方法是基于观察到许多生物体产生抗菌肽（AMP）。这些物质具有广谱抗菌活性，而由于它们的化学组成不同，宿主生物体的细胞几乎不受影响。基于氨基酸和多肽的抗菌肽合成复杂，限制了其在医药领域的应用，因此需要一种基于合成聚合物的抗菌肽合成方法，在保留抗菌肽的两亲性和正电荷的基础上，合成抗菌肽并进行规模化生产。在这个项目中，基于聚（异氰酸酯）和其他支架的聚合物将被合成和表征。这些聚合物的抗微生物活性可以通过改变异氰酸酯单体的极性和聚合物的链长来调节。通过不同异氰酸酯单体的共聚，可以进一步改变聚合物的表面两亲性。这些材料与模型膜的相互作用以及它们的生物活性和选择性将被研究。

The aim of this project is to prepare synthetic polymers with antimicrobial properties. Thisbiomimetic approach is based on the observation that many organisms produce antimicrobial peptides(AMPs). These substances have broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, while the cells of the hostorganism are hardly affected due to their different chemical composition. Due to the complicatedsynthesis of AMPs based on amino acids and peptides, their application as pharmaceuticals is limited.A facilitated approach to obtain such molecules based on synthetic polymers is thus highly desirable.While still capturing the key features of AMPs (amphiphilicity and positive charge), synthetic AMPs canbe obtained and up-scaled more easily. In this project, polymers based on poly(isocyanates) and otherscaffolds are to be synthesized and characterized. The antimicrobial activity of these polymers can betuned by varying the polarity of the isocyanate monomer(s) and the chain length of the polymer. Bycopolymerization of different isocyanate monomers, the facial amphiphilicity of the resulting polymercan be further modified. Their interaction of these materials with model membranes as well as theirbiological activity and selectivity will be investigated.