Quaternary ammonium salt (QAS)-modified thermoresponsive PNIPAM-PDMAEA copolymer for antibiofilm and antimicrobial applications

The development of antimicrobial and antibiofilm materials for treating bacterial pathogens is attracting considerable research attention. Polymers with specific functionalities play important roles in the preparation of antimicrobial materials. In this study, a novel copolymer with dual functions was synthesized. A one-pot copolymerization technique was used to copolymerize N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) and 2-dimethylaminoe-thylmethacrylate (DMAEA) monomers and quaternized them with alkyl bromide to produce thermoresponsive poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) segments. These PNIPAM segments exhibited high-efficient antimi-crobial and antibiofilm properties of quaternary ammonium salt (QAS)-based PDMAEMA segments together in a single copolymer system. The synthesized PNIPAM-DMAEMA (CP-9:1, 8:2, 7:3, 6:4, and 5:5) copolymer-QAS (QAS-C4, C6, and C8) were characterized using a range of techniques. Among them, PNIPAM-DMAEMA-7:3@QAS-C4 copolymer (CP-7:3@QAS-C4) at 100 & mu;g/mL inhibited biofilm formation by fungal Candida albi-cans via impeding hyphal formation. In addition, CP-7:3@QAS-C4 and CP-7:3@QAS-C6, at 100 & mu;g/mL markedly inhibited single biofilm formation by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) and multispecies biofilm develop-ment by UPEC and C. albicans. Overall, a novel synthetic method was developed for producing QAS-based antimicrobial copolymers with potential antibiofilm efficiency that could be applied in biomedical applications.

Automated summary

The development of antimicrobial and antibiofilm materials for treating bacterial pathogens is attracting attention. A novel copolymer with dual functions was synthesized in this study. The copolymer exhibited high-efficient antimicrobial and antibiofilm properties, making it a potential antimicrobial agent in biomedical applications.