Mixed-charge pseudo-zwitterionic copolymer brush as broad spectrum antibiofilm coating

• Main Authors: Wu, Yang, Raju, Cheerlavancha, Hou, Zheng, Si, Zhangyong, Xu, Chen, Pranantyo, Dicky, Marimuthu, Kalisvar, De, Partha Pratim, Ng, Oon Tek, Pethe, Kevin, Kang, En-Tang, Chan-Park, Mary B.
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Engineering::Chemical engineering::Polymers and polymer manufacture; Pseudo-Zwitterionic Copolymer; Mixed-Charge
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/154044
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Zwitterionic polymers are classical antifouling polymers but they require specialized monomers that have cationic and anionic charges integrated into a single monomer. Herein, we show that pseudo-zwitterionic copolymers synthesized from a mixture of 2 monomers each having a single opposite polarity has excellent antibiofilm efficacy. We have discovered a new mixed-charge copolymer brush (#1-A) synthesized from 2 oppositely charged monomers, the anionic SPM (3-Sulfopropyl methacrylate) and the cationic AMPTMA ((3-Acrylamidopropyl) trimethylammonium chloride), that achieves broad spectrum in vitro antibiofilm effect of greater than 99% reductions against all six Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria tested. In the murine subcutaneous wound catheter infection models, the #1-A has good long-term anti-biofilm efficacy against MRSA and Pseudomonas aeruginosa of 3.41 and 3.19 orders respectively, outperforming previous mixed-charge copolymer coatings. We discovered a new method to choose the cationic/anionic pair combination to form the best antibiofilm copolymer brush coating by exploiting the solution polymerization kinetics disparity between the cationic and anionic monomers. We also showed that #1-A is softer and has higher hydration than the classical zwitterionic polymer. This study shows the possibility of achieving potent antibiofilm efficacy by combining readily available opposite singly charged monomers.