Synthetic polymer structures have shown promise in the biological domain in recent years. Specifically, the use of polymers in combatting the rise in multidrug-resistant bacterial infections is a focus of many groups.[1] In this arena, one such topic is in mimicking naturally occurring antibiotic agents termed Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs).[2] As part of the innate immune system, AMPs have been shown to act in a manner preventing easy bacterial adaptation and resistance development, although production of such molecules remains laborious. Recent developments in controlled/living radical polymerization (CLRP) techniques have enabled production of more complex synthetic polymers in the last few decades.[3] This provides a wider variety of relatively easy to produce synthetic macromolecular structures, allowing for AMP mimetic structures to be explored more easily. Using photoinduced electron transfer-reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (PET-RAFT) developed previously by our group,[4] we have recently investigated the impact of monomer placement within block terpolymers of a singular composition on antimicrobial activity. We have discovered that, through such variations in monomer order addition, antimicrobial activities of polymers differ despite a constant global composition. This has enabled the production of polymers with targeted antimicrobial activity.

Towards sequence-controlled antimicrobial polymers using PET-RAFT polymerization

256th National Meeting (2018)

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