Antibiotic resistance in bacteria has reached alarming levels in many parts of the world, whereby common infections in some settings have become refractory to available treatment options. World Health Organization (WHO) has predicted that there will be 10 million people deaths each year due to drug resistant bacteria by 2050 if current trend continues. Essentially, we will enter a post antibiotic era, which will threaten the foundation of modern medicine. To avoid or delay these consequences, we need to restrict uses of antibiotics we currently have, encourage more research in the development of new antibiotics and think outside of the box and develop new alternative treatment methods. It was very encouraging to see a recent discovered new antibiotic which does not cause drug resistant.<br/>In this lecture, we will describe a star shaped and peptide-based polymer which can kill Gram-negative bacteria as alternative medicine to antibiotics. The star is synthesized via a core-first and ring-opening polymerization of α-amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides. The invitro experiments show that bacteria’s outer membrane is snapped away by stars. In vitro experiment has also demonstrated that the star does not cause any resistance by A. baumannii after 600 generation of the growth and in vivo model showed that the star can clear infection in mice by multi-drug resistant A. baumannii while the antibiotic, imipenem stopped working. A. baumannii has been recently classified as one of three Priority 1 pathogens by WHO.

Killing gram-negative superbugs with star polymers, not antibiotics

254th National Meeting (2017)

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