Convenient Preparation of Bactericidal Hydrogels by Covalent Attachment of Stabilized Antimicrobial Peptides Using Thiol-ene Click Chemistry.

This report describes the design and synthesis of a bactericidal poly(ethylene glycol)-based (PEG) hydrogel coating with covalently attached antimicrobial peptides (AMP) stabilized against proteolytic degradation. As such, mimics of the highly active AMP HHC10 (H-KRWWKWIRW-NH) were designed for optimal stability in human serum while retaining strong antimicrobial activity against and , the major causative agents of biomaterial associated infection. In order to investigate the selectivity of the AMPs, their hemolytic activity was determined. A N-terminal cysteine facilitated thiol-ene chemistry for a fast, single-step immobilization/photopolymerization strategy. The antimicrobial activity of the resulting thin layer hydrogel coating on a PET surface was established using the Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) Z2801 assay, showing complete killing (>99.9%) of inocula of ATCC 49230, ATCC 35984, and ATCC 8739.