Chemical modification, electrospinning and biological activities of pluronic F68

There is an urgent requirement to advance ecofriendly antimicrobial polymers for solving the bacterial infections. Polymers with quaternary ammonium/phosphonium salts are considered one of the most promising materials for the antibacterial efficacy. Thus, in this trend, pluronic F68 was modified with chloroacetyl chloride, followed by treating with triethyl amine (TEA), triphenyl phosphine (TPP) and tributyl phosphine (TBP) to insert quaternary ammonium and phosphonium salts onto the polymer chain. The structural characterization of the modified polymers was determined by FT-IR, NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis and TGA. The pluronic F68 and modified pluronic F68 were electrospun to fabricate nanofibers using cellulose acetate as a co-spinning agent and acetone/DMF (2:1) as a solvent. The morphology of the electrospun nanofibers is observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The antibacterial activities of the pluronic F68 and its derivatives against gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Proteus vulgaris) and gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) were evaluated. All polymers exhibited high antibacterial activity against all the tested microorganisms. Chloroacetylated pluronic F68 (II) exhibited the highest activity against Staphylococcus aureus. On the other hand, tributyl phosphonium salt (V) showed the highest activity against Proteus vulgaris. The minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) studies showed that polymer (II) exhibited the highest activity against S. aureus and E. coli. Polymer (V) showed a moderate activity against E. coli. For cytotoxic activity, polymers showed moderate to strong effect against MCF-7 and Hela.

Automated summary

There is an urgent requirement to advance ecofriendly antimicrobial polymers for solving the bacterial infections. Polymers with quaternary ammonium/phosphonium salts are considered one of the most promising materials for the antibacterial efficacy. The modified polymers exhibited high antibacterial activity against gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Proteus vulgaris) and gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus). They also showed moderate to strong cytotoxic effects against MCF-7 and Hela.