Dr. Quentin Michaudel and his research team have created a new family of polymers that kill bacteria without inducing antibiotic resistance, a major step forward in the fight against superbugs such as E. coli and MRSA.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have become a rapidly growing threat to public health. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 2.8 million infections are caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria each year. Without new antibiotics, even common injuries and infections can be fatal.

Scientists are now one step closer to eliminating this threat, thanks to a collaboration led by Texas A&M University that has developed a new series of polymers capable of killing bacteria by disrupting these microorganisms' membranes without inducing antibiotic resistance.

"The new polymer we synthesized could help combat antibiotic resistance in the future by providing an antibacterial molecule that bacteria do not appear to develop resistance to," said Dr. Quentin Micaudel, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and principal investigator of the study.

Michaudel's lab, which works at the interface of organic chemistry and polymer science, synthesized the new polymer by carefully engineering a positively charged molecule to be spliced ​​multiple times using a carefully selected catalyst called AquaMet to form a macromolecule composed of the same repeating charging pattern. According to Michaudel, the catalyst is critical because it must be able to withstand high concentrations of charge and must also be water-soluble - properties he believes are uncommon in this type of process.

Following its success, Micoudel's lab teamed up with Dr. Jessica Schiffman's research group at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to test its polymer against two major antibiotic-resistant bacteria, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). While awaiting these results, the researchers also tested their polymer's toxicity on human red blood cells.

"A common problem with antimicrobial polymers is the lack of selectivity between bacteria and human cells when targeting cell membranes. The key is to strike the right balance between effectively inhibiting bacterial growth and indiscriminately killing several cell types," explains Michaudel.

Michaudel credits the multidisciplinary nature of scientific innovation and the generosity of enthusiastic researchers on the Texas A&M campus and around the country as factors in his team's success in identifying the perfect catalyst for molecular assembly: "This project has been several years in the making, and would not have been possible without the help of several groups in addition to our collaborators. For example, we had to ship some samples to Layton at the University of Virginia. "

Michaudel said the research team will now focus on improving the polymer's activity against bacteria, specifically its selectivity against bacterial cells and human cells, before conducting in vivo trials, and they are synthesizing various analogs to achieve this exciting goal.

References Sarah N. Hancock, Nattawut Yuntawattana, Emily Diep, Arunava Maity, An Tran, Jessica D. Schiffman, and Quentin Michaudel published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on December 11, 2023: "An antibacterial main chain cationic polymer is obtained by ring-opening metasynthetic polymerization of N-methylpyridinium fused with norbornene."

DOI:10.1073/pnas.2311396120

Compiled source: ScitechDaily