Random nylon-3 copolymers: Synthetic polymers as host defense peptide mimics

Stereo- and sequence-random nylon-3 copolymers (poly-�-peptides) display exciting biological functions that might be of therapeutic interest, such as antimicrobial activity. The efficient and inexpensive preparation of these polymers and their intrinsic backbone similarity to conventional peptides/proteins makes the nylon-3 class attractive for biomedical applications.Cationic-lipophilic nylon-3 copolymers are proposed to adopt globally amphiphilic but irregular conformations upon approaching a biomembrane, which causes interactions with the lipid bilayer that degrade its barrier function and ultimately inhibit microbial growth. Our findings suggest that sequence-random nylon-3 copolymers containing both lipophilic and cationic subunits can display prokaryote vs. eukaryote selectivity patterns similar to those of sequence-controlled host defense peptides.

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