Antimicrobial polymers
The invention generally relates to novel polymers (SMAMPs) and their syntheses and use. The polymers exhibit promising properties of AMPs. In particularly, for example, a ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) platform was developed that allows syntheses of SMAMPs that employ a minimum number of norbornene-based building blocks and/or enable easy and independent variation of hydrophobic and hydrophilic groups in the monomer units and/or along the polymeric backbone to finetune and select desirable properties of the polymers.
1. A method for reducing or eliminating bacterial microorganisms comprising treating an object with a composition comprising an antimicrobial effective amount of a polymer, wherein the polymer comprises a monomer unit having the structure of:
wherein one of R 1 and R 2 comprises a hydrophobic group and the other one of R 1 and R 2 comprises a hydrophilic group; and X is C═R 3 , O or S, wherein R 3 is a C 1 -C 12 alkyl or alkoxy group.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydrophobic group comprises a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydrophilic group comprises a group selected from ammonium ions, sulfonium ions, guanidinium ions, phosphonium ions, and mono- and di-alkyl substituted amino groups.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydrophilic group is a guanidinium ion.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein X is O; R 1 is a linear or branched C 1 -C 12 alkyl group; and R 2 is
or a guanidinium ion, wherein p is an integer from about 1 to about 10.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein both —C(═O)O— groups in (II) occupy the exo-stereo position.
7. The method of claim 5 , wherein R 1 is a linear or branched C 1 -C 6 alkyl group; and p is an integer from about 1 to about 5.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein X is C═R 3 ; R 1 is a linear or branched C 1 -C 12 alkyl group; R 2 is
or a guanidinium ion, wherein p is an integer from 1-10.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein R 3 is a C 1 -C 12 alkyl.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein n is an integer from about 1 to about 1,000.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer is a co-polymer.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the co-polymer comprises the structural monomer units of:
wherein
each of X′ and X″ is C═R 3 , O or S, wherein R 3 is a C 1 -C 12 alkyl or alkoxy group;
each of R 1 ′ and R 1 ″ is a hydrophobic group and each of R 2 ′ and R 2 ″ is a hydrophilic group, provided that R 1 ′ and R 1 ″ are not the same, R 2 ′ and R 2 ″ are the same, or X′ and X″ are not the same; and
each of m and n is an integer from about 1 to about 1,000.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the hydrophilic group comprises a group selected from ammonium ions, sulfonium ions, guanidinium ions, phosphonium ions, and mono- and di-alkyl substituted amino groups.
14. The method of claim 12 , wherein all —C(═O)O— groups in (III) and (IV) occupy the exo-stereo position.
15. The method of claim 12 , wherein
each of R 1 ′ and R 1 ″ is independently a linear or branched C 1 -C 12 alkyl group; and each of R 2 ′ and R 2 ″ is independently
or a guanidinium ion, wherein p is an integer from 1-10.