Compositions and uses of materials with high antimicrobial activity and low toxicity

摘要

Improved synthetic copolypeptide antimicrobials contain cationic amino acid residues and may be based on a blocky sequence. These antimicrobials show low mammalian toxicity and may undergo directed self-assembly. The inventive synthetic copolypeptides are useful in treatment of wounds and other infections.

主权项

1. An antimicrobial composition comprising:
at least one species of synthetic copolypeptide of at least forty amino acid residues comprising:
at least one hydrophilic segment containing at least five contiguous cationic amino acid residues; andat least one hydrophobic segment containing at least five contiguous hydrophobic amino acid residues;wherein the hydrophilic segment contains a larger number of amino acid residues than the hydrophobic segment; and water; wherein said at least one species of synthetic copolypeptide forms multimeric structures in aqueous media; wherein said at least one species of synthetic copolypeptide inhibits or kills microbes in aqueous media; and wherein the composition inhibits or kills microbes.