Synthetic Polymers for Simultaneous Bacterial Sequestration and Quorum Sense Interference

摘要

Materials that interfere with bacteria-host interactions are an attractive approach for controlling infectious diseases (Figure 1 a, route 1). Synthetic polymers are especially useful in this context, because their affinity with cell surface receptors can be tailored through multivalent ligand display, while at the same time avoiding selection pressure and resistance invoked in bacteria by antibiotics. However, many bacterial species employ additional strategies for environmental adaptation and host invasion, thus confounding therapies that depend on cell sequestration alone. Amongst these mechanisms are communication systems such as quorum sensing (QS), which allows bacteria to synchronize transcriptional changes at the population level (Figure la, route 2).