Antimicrobial agents that are dispersed throughout a polymeric network traditionally suffer from unwanted leaching, low loading, and uncontrolled burst release. Pro-antimicrobial networks offer a viable solution in which polymeric pro-drugs undergo partial or complete degradation to release active therapeutic agents. In this work, we describe the synthesis of new acetal-containing monomers derived from intrinsically antimicrobial aldehydes. Upon polymerization, these active agents are fully incorporated within a stable thiol-ene network. However, exposure to aqueous environments results in rapid degradation and release of the antibiotic in its active form. Herein, we demonstrate the synthesis of a library of monomers, photopolymerization kinetics, degradation kinetics, and antimicrobial evaluation of the monomers. We then incorporate this network chemistry into highly monodisperse microparticles to evaluate antimicrobial activity.
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