Poly(amino acid-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)s with chiral lysine and/or leucine side moieties and their antibacterial abilities for biomedical applications

Biomedical applications of the synthetic polymers with amino acid side moieties have been studied in light of their biocompatibility. In this work, poly(amino acid-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)s with lysine (Lys)/leucine side moieties were synthesized via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization, and were verified with intrinsic chirality. For biomedical uses, their antibacterial abilities as well as hemolysis and cytotoxicity were investigated. The results indicated that there were similar inhibitions for d - and l -enantiomeric polymers against Staphylococcus aureus when the polymer concentrations were lower than ~   300   μg/mL, while the polymer containing d -Lys moiety was more effective against Escherichia coli . The d -enantiomers at concentrations <   500   μg/mL showed relatively lower hemolysis, and all the polymers showed good in vitro cell viability with concentrations lower than 200   μg/mL. It was indicated that the antibacterial amino acid-related synthetic polymers could be potentially applied for biomedical applications.