Towards the synthesis of sugar amino acid containing antimicrobial noncytotoxic CAP conjugates with gold nanoparticles and a mechanistic study of cell disruption.

Cationic antimicrobial peptides are potent inhibitors of growth of a broad spectrum of micro-organisms but often have large cytotoxic effects. We prepared some novel sugar amino acid containing cyclic cationic peptides and their Au nanoparticle attached counterparts and studied their antimicrobial activities and cytotoxic behaviour, including an investigation of the mechanism of the cytotoxicity.