am0c02939_si_001.pdf (246.27 kB)
Quantitative Determination of Dark and Light-Activated Antimicrobial Activity of Poly(Phenylene Ethynylene), Polythiophene, and Oligo(Phenylene Ethynylene) Electrolytes
journal contribution
posted on 2020-04-07, 21:30 authored by Andrea Scheberl, Mohammed L. Khalil, Fahimeh Maghsoodi, Edward W. Strach, Jianzhong Yang, Eva Y. Chi, Kirk S. Schanze, Erik Reimhult, David G. WhittenMuch
recent effort has been directed toward the development of
novel antimicrobial materials able to defeat new and antibiotic resistant
pathogens. In this report, we study the efficacy of cationic poly(phenylene
ethynylene), polythiophene, and oligo(phenylene ethynylene) electrolytes
against laboratory strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus
aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis. The
focus of the study is to quantitatively evaluate the speed and extent
of dark and light-activated antimicrobial activity. Using cell plating
with serial dilutions, we determined that planktonic bacteria suspensions
exposed to the antimicrobials (at 10 μg/mL) result in several
log kills at 10 min both in the dark and under UV irradiation (360
nm) for all eight synthetic antimicrobials. However, there are significant
differences in the ease of killing the different pathogens. In most
trials, there is significantly greater killing under light-irradiation,
indicating these materials may be used as versatile disinfectants.