Antimicrobial Polymer-Based Assemblies: A Review

An antimicrobial supramolecular assembly (ASA) is conspicuous in biomedical applications. Among the alternatives to overcome microbial resistance to antibiotics and drugs, ASAs, including antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and polymers (APs), provide formulations with optimal antimicrobial activity and acceptable toxicity. AMPs and APs have been delivered by a variety of carriers such as nanoparticles, coatings, multilayers, hydrogels, liposomes, nanodisks, lyotropic lipid phases, nanostructured lipid carriers, etc. They have similar mechanisms of action involving adsorption to the cell wall, penetration across the cell membrane, and microbe lysis. APs, however, offer the advantage of cheap synthetic procedures, chemical stability, and improved adsorption (due to multipoint attachment to microbes), as compared to the expensive synthetic routes, poor yield, and subpar in vivo stability seen in AMPs. We review recent advances in polymer-based antimicrobial assemblies involving AMPs and APs.

Automated summary

Antimicrobial supramolecular assemblies play a significant role in biomedical applications, with AMPs and APs providing formulations with optimal antimicrobial activity and acceptable toxicity. While both AMPs and APs have similar mechanisms of action, APs offer advantages such as cheap synthetic procedures, chemical stability, and improved adsorption compared to AMPs, which have expensive synthetic routes and subpar in vivo stability. Recent advances in polymer-based antimicrobial assemblies have focused on utilizing both AMPs and APs.