Non-leaching antibacterial cotton fabrics based on lipidated peptides

A set of lipidated peptides was in situ synthesised on cotton fabrics using Fmoc-based peptide synthesis. The resulting modified surfaces exhibit highly potent antibacterial activities in two Gram-negative bacteria including Escherichia coli (ATCC 8739) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 9027), along with moderate antibacterial activities in a Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538P). As anticipated from covalently bound antimicrobial moieties, a representative membrane disintegration assay suggested that the modified surfaces inhibited bacteria by disrupting the integrity of bacterial cell membranes. Without non-natural D-peptides used in previous studies, this new class of non-leaching antibacterial surfaces offer potent activities while having more practical and economical productions. Furthermore, biocompatibility studies suggest that a selected set of surfaces show no toxicity, thus rendering them suitable for biomedical applications.