title: On the antimicrobial activity of various peptide-based dendrimers of similar architecture.
abstract: Antimicrobial drug resistance is a major human health threat. Among the many attempts to tackle this problem, the synthesis of antimicrobial compounds that mimic natural antimicrobial peptides appears as a promising approach. Peptide-based dendrimers can be designed to have higher potency than natural antimicrobial peptides and at the same time they can evade the bacterial defense system. Novel dendrimers with similar chemical structure but varying potency in terms of minimum inhibitory concentration were designed. The dependency between dendrimer structure and antibacterial activity as well as their capacity to attack model cell membranes was studied. The data suggests that supramolecular structure in terms of charge distribution and amphiphilicity, rather than net charge, is the main driver for disruption of cellular membranes and this correlates well with dendrimer hemolytic activity.
authors.affiliation: Nano-Science Center and Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 2100, Denmark. tania@nano.ku.dk.
authors.forename: Tania K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Lind
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw 01-224, Poland. wormfather@o2.pl.
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Polcyn
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw 01-224, Poland. paulina.zielinska@icho.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Paulina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zielinska
authors.affiliation: Nano-Science Center and Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 2100, Denmark. tania@nano.ku.dk.
authors.forename: Marité
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cárdenas
authors.affiliation: Institute of Organic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw 01-224, Poland. zofia.lipkowska@icho.edu.pl.
authors.forename: Zofia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Urbanczyk-Lipkowska
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D050091:Dendrimers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006090:Gram-Negative Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects; D006094:Gram-Positive Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects; D006461:Hemolysis / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D050091:Dendrimers; D010455:Peptides