Peptidomimetic nano-material for antimicrobial studies (design and synthesis)

Infections caused by biofilms on abiotic surfaces are among the most common infections. Surface engineering for antimicrobial purposes has been implemented as a potential strategy to avoid biofilm formation. However, despite the availability of a variety of nanotechnologies for synthesis and functionalization of biological nanomaterials for anti-biofilm applications, some of the limiting factors are the biocompatibility and ease of production. In the search for novel strategies to assist in successful elimination of biofilm formation on medical devices, peptoids2D nanostructures (nanosheets) hold great potential as antimicrobial surfaces due to their ease in synthesis and large quantity production [1]. These bio-inspired polymers can be chemically synthesized using automated solid-phase synthesis techniques and rely on sequence–specific chains that assemble into monolayer at air-water surfaces [2]. We have designed and synthesized novel surfaces by synthesis of polymer specific peptidomimetic sequences and have characterized them using both scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy (Fig. 1). We have chosen to incorporate antimicrobial peptide and peptoid as loop domains, which we have recently shown that they are effective in preventing E.coli biofilm formation [3]. We believe that peptoid nanosheets with antimicrobial peptides/peptoids loop domains offer great advantage over the already existing techniques for coating medical devices in the ease of synthesis and higher uniformity in the protective quality, making them more efficient for preventing biofilm.