%0 Journal Article
%T Self-Assembled Borneol-Guanidine-Based Amphiphilic Polymers as an Efficient Antibiofilm Agent.
%A Pang C
%A Li B
%A Tu Z
%A Ling J
%A Tan Y
%A Chen S
%A Hong L
%J ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
%V 0
%N 0
%D 2024 Jun 29
%M 38943568
%F 10.383
%R 10.1021/acsami.4c02818
%X Biofilm-associated infections remain a tremendous obstacle to the treatment of microbial infections globally. However, the poor penetrability to a dense extracellular polymeric substance matrix of traditional antibacterial agents limits their antibiofilm activity. Here, we show that nanoaggregates formed by self-assembly of amphiphilic borneol-guanidine-based cationic polymers (BGNx-n) possess strong antibacterial activity and can eliminate mature Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) biofilms. The introduction of the guanidine moiety improves the hydrophilicity and membrane penetrability of BGNx-n. The self-assembled nanoaggregates with highly localized positive charges are expected to enhance their interaction with negatively charged bacteria and biofilms. Furthermore, nanoaggregates dissociate on the surface of biofilms into smaller BGNx-n polymers, which enhances their ability to penetrate biofilms. BGNx-n nanoaggregates that exhibit superior antibacterial activity have the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 62.5 μg·mL-1 against S. aureus and eradicate mature biofilms at 4 × MIC with negligible hemolysis. Taken together, this size-variable self-assembly system offers a promising strategy for the development of effective antibiofilm agents.