De novo Design of Biomimetic Antimicrobial Polymers

The design of polymers and oligomers that mimic the complex structures and remarkable biological properties of proteins is an important endeavor with both fundamental and practical implications. Recently, a number of nonnatural peptides with designed sequences have been elaborated to provide biologi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2002-04, Vol.99 (8), p.5110-5114
Main Authors: Tew, Gregory N., Liu, Dahui, Chen, Bin, Doerksen, Robert J., Kaplan, Justin, Carroll, Patrick J., Klein, Michael L., DeGrado, William F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amides
Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology
Anti-Infective Agents - pharmacology
Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides - chemistry
Antimicrobials
arylamide polymers
Biochemistry
Biological Sciences
Chlorides
Crystal structure
Diamines
drug design
Inhibitory Concentration 50
Models, Chemical
Models, Molecular
Nylons - chemistry
Oligomers
Peptides - chemistry
Polymers
Proteins
Sodium
Software
Solvents
Sulfides
Time Factors
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Summary:The design of polymers and oligomers that mimic the complex structures and remarkable biological properties of proteins is an important endeavor with both fundamental and practical implications. Recently, a number of nonnatural peptides with designed sequences have been elaborated to provide biologically active structures; in particular, facially amphiphilic peptides built from β-amino acids have been shown to mimic both the structures as well as the biological function of natural antimicrobial peptides such as magainins and cecropins. However, these natural peptides as well as their β-peptide analogues are expensive to prepare and difficult to produce on a large scale, limiting their potential use to certain pharmaceutical applications. We therefore have designed a series of facially amphiphilic arylamide polymers that capture the physical and biological properties of this class of antimicrobial peptides, but are easy to prepare from inexpensive monomers. The design process was aided by molecular calculations with density functional theory-computed torsional potentials. This new class of amphiphilic polymers may be applied in situations where inexpensive antimicrobial agents are required.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.082046199