Effective and biocompatible antibacterial surfaces via facile synthesis and surface modification of peptide polymers

Ziyi Lu; Yueming Wu; Zihao Cong; Yuxin Qian; Xue Wu; Ning Shao; Zhongqian Qiao; Haodong Zhang; Yunrui She; Kang Chen; Hengxue Xiang; Bin Sun; Qian Yu; Yuan Yuan; Haodong Lin; Meifang Zhu; Runhui Liu

doi:10.1016/j.bioactmat.2021.05.008

Effective and biocompatible antibacterial surfaces via facile synthesis and surface modification of peptide polymers

Bioact Mater. 2021 May 14;6(12):4531-4541. doi: 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2021.05.008. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Authors

Ziyi Lu¹, Yueming Wu¹, Zihao Cong¹, Yuxin Qian¹, Xue Wu¹, Ning Shao¹, Zhongqian Qiao¹, Haodong Zhang¹, Yunrui She¹, Kang Chen¹, Hengxue Xiang², Bin Sun², Qian Yu³, Yuan Yuan⁴, Haodong Lin⁵, Meifang Zhu², Runhui Liu^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China.
² State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China.
³ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymers Design and Application, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, Frontiers Science Center for Materiobiology and Dynamic Chemistry, 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.
⁵ Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200080, China.

Abstract

It is an urgent need to tackle drug-resistance microbial infections that are associated with implantable biomedical devices. Host defense peptide-mimicking polymers have been actively explored in recent years to fight against drug-resistant microbes. Our recent report on lithium hexamethyldisilazide-initiated superfast polymerization on amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides enables the quick synthesis of host defense peptide-mimicking peptide polymers. Here we reported a facile and cost-effective thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) surface modification of peptide polymer (DLL: BLG = 90 : 10) using plasma surface activation and substitution reaction between thiol and bromide groups. The peptide polymer-modified TPU surfaces exhibited board-spectrum antibacterial property as well as effective contact-killing ability in vitro. Furthermore, the peptide polymer-modified TPU surfaces showed excellent biocompatibility, displaying no hemolysis and cytotoxicity. In vivo study using methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) for subcutaneous implantation infectious model showed that peptide polymer-modified TPU surfaces revealed obvious suppression of infection and great histocompatibility, compared to bare TPU surfaces. We further explored the antimicrobial mechanism of the peptide polymer-modified TPU surfaces, which revealed a surface contact-killing mechanism by disrupting the bacterial membrane. These results demonstrated great potential of the peptide-modified TPU surfaces for practical application to combat bacterial infections that are associated with implantable materials and devices.

Keywords: Antimicrobial surface; Host defense peptide; MRSA; Peptide polymer; Subcutaneous infection.