On the Antimicrobial Activity of Various Peptide-Based Dendrimers of Similar Architecture

Autor: Tania K. Lind, Piotr Polcyn, Paulina Zielinska, Marité Cárdenas, Zofia Urbanczyk-Lipkowska
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
Zdroj: Molecules, Vol 20, Iss 1, Pp 738-753 (2015)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1420-3049
DOI: 10.3390/molecules20010738
Popis: Antimicrobial drug resistance is a major human health threat. Among the many attempts to tackle this problem, the synthesis of antimicrobial compounds that mimic natural antimicrobial peptides appears as a promising approach. Peptide-based dendrimers can be designed to have higher potency than natural antimicrobial peptides and at the same time they can evade the bacterial defense system. Novel dendrimers with similar chemical structure but varying potency in terms of minimum inhibitory concentration were designed. The dependency between dendrimer structure and antibacterial activity as well as their capacity to attack model cell membranes was studied. The data suggests that supramolecular structure in terms of charge distribution and amphiphilicity, rather than net charge, is the main driver for disruption of cellular membranes and this correlates well with dendrimer hemolytic activity.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals