The Design of Hyperbranched Polymer Biguanide Molecules with a Four-Arm Branched Core Structure Enhances Antibacterial Properties

Bin Wang; Xu Meng

doi:10.3390/polym16243481

The Design of Hyperbranched Polymer Biguanide Molecules with a Four-Arm Branched Core Structure Enhances Antibacterial Properties

Polymers (Basel). 2024 Dec 13;16(24):3481. doi: 10.3390/polym16243481.

Authors

Bin Wang^{1

2}, Xu Meng³

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Quality Management and Inspection & Quarantine, Yibin University, Yibin 644000, China.
² Chengdu Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou 213164, China.

PMID: 39771333
DOI: 10.3390/polym16243481

Abstract

Amide-amine (PAMAM) dendrimers are biodegradable, non-immunogenic, genotoxic, and biocompatibible, which make them excellent materials for biological applications. In order to reduce the cytotoxicity of the designed branched molecules, a four-armed branched nucleus (B4) of PAMAM dendrimers as hyperbranched molecules was fused with polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB) (A2); hyperbranched polymeric biguanides (PAPBs) with a four-arm central core PAMAM structure were synthesized. The bactericidal and cell toxicity tests showed that PAPB had excellent bactericidal activity against both Gram-positive bacteria and Gram-negative, and the chemical binding of PHMB and PAMAM had synergistic effects. PAMAM reduced the toxicity of PAPB to 3T3 cells.

Keywords: antimicrobial activity; antimicrobial mechanism; hyperbranched polymer; polybiguanide.