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Synthesis and Characterization of Antimicrobial Polyesters by Mimicking Host Defense Peptides

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2017, Master of Science, University of Akron, Polymer Science.
Bacterial resistance is an increasingly serious issue due to the abuse of antibiotics in healthcare, agriculture, as well as industry.1 Higher doses of conventional antibiotics which are used to treat these drug-resistant bacteria will be more costly and toxic. Thus, there is an urgent need for the development of new kinds of antibiotics. Host defense peptides (HDPs), also called antimicrobial peptides, are part of the innate immune system that helps organisms to fight pathogenic microorganisms.2 Unlike conventional antibiotics, these peptides have a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. Typically, these peptides are amphiphilic molecules with 12 to 45 amino acid residues which include a large proportion of hydrophobic residues (>30%) and an overall positive charge (around +2 to +9). However, the high cost of production, degradation in vivo due to the presence of proteases, and efficacy variation under different physiological conditions are some of the biggest problems for them to be useful therapeutics at this time.3 To avoid these disadvantages, synthetic polyesters which mimic the structures of these HDPs have been made and studied. The effects of the molecular weight, pendant group hydrophobicity, as well as charge density are investigated, and their antimicrobial properties have been characterized. Reference: (1) Hawkey, P., The growing burden of antimicrobial resistance. Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy 2008, 62 (suppl 1), i1-i9. (2) Hancock, R. E.; Lehrer, R., Cationic peptides: a new source of antibiotics. Trends in biotechnology 1998, 16 (2), 82-88. (3) Hancock, R. E.; Sahl, H.-G., Antimicrobial and host-defense peptides as new anti-infective therapeutic strategies. Nature biotechnology 2006, 24 (12), 1551-1557.
Abraham Joy (Advisor)
Yu Zhu (Committee Member)

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wang, X. (2017). Synthesis and Characterization of Antimicrobial Polyesters by Mimicking Host Defense Peptides [Master's thesis, University of Akron]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1491508009859916

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wang, Xinyi. Synthesis and Characterization of Antimicrobial Polyesters by Mimicking Host Defense Peptides. 2017. University of Akron, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1491508009859916.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wang, Xinyi. "Synthesis and Characterization of Antimicrobial Polyesters by Mimicking Host Defense Peptides." Master's thesis, University of Akron, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1491508009859916

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)