Biofilms containing Candida albicans are responsible for a wide variety of clinical infections. The protective effects of the biofilm matrix, the low metabolic activity of microorganisms within a biofilm and their high mutation rate, significantly enhance the resistance of biofilms to conventional antimicrobial treatments. Peptoids are peptide-mimics that share many features of host defence antimicrobial peptides but have increased resistance to proteases and therefore have better stability in vivo. The activity of a library of peptoids was tested against monospecies and polymicrobial bacterial/fungal biofilms. Selected peptoids showed significant bactericidal and fungicidal activity against the polymicrobial biofilms. This coupled with low cytotoxicity suggests that peptoids could offer a new option for the treatment of clinically relevant polymicrobial infections.
Keywords: antibacterial; antibiotics; antiproliferation; cross kingdom; peptoid; quantification.
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.