Towards Sequence‐Controlled Antimicrobial Polymers: Effect of Polymer Block Order on Antimicrobial Activity |
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Authors: | Peter R. Judzewitsch Dr. Thuy‐Khanh Nguyen Dr. Sivaprakash Shanmugam Dr. Edgar H. H. Wong Prof. Cyrille Boyer |
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Affiliation: | Centre for Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD) and Australian Centre for NanoMedicine (ACN), School of Chemical Engineering, UNSW Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia |
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Abstract: | Synthetic polymers have shown promise in combating multidrug‐resistant bacteria. However, the biological effects of sequence control in synthetic antimicrobial polymers are currently not well understood. As such, we investigate the antimicrobial effects of monomer distribution within linear high‐order quasi‐block copolymers consisting of aminoethyl, phenylethyl, and hydroxyethyl acrylamides made in a one‐pot synthesis approach via photoinduced electron transfer–reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerisation (PET‐RAFT). Through different combinations of monomer/polymer block order, antimicrobial and haemolytic activities are tuneable in a manner comparable to antimicrobial peptides. |
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Keywords: | antimicrobial polymers multiblock polymers RAFT polymerisation sequence control |
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