The influence on the resistance formation of polymers attached to antibiotics has rarely been investigated. In this study, ciprofloxacin (CIP) was conjugated to poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline)s with an ethylene diamine end group (Me-PMOx28-EDA) via two different spacers (CIP modified with α,α′-dichloro-p-xylene—xCIP, CIP modified with chloroacetyl chloride—eCIP). The antibacterial activity of the conjugates against a number of bacterial strains shows a great dependence on the nature of the spacer. The Me-PMOx39-EDA-eCIP, containing a potentially cleavable linker, does not exhibit a molecular weight dependence on antibacterial activity in contrast to Me-PMOx27-EDA-xCIP. The resistance formation of both conjugates against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli was investigated. Both conjugates showed the potential to significantly delay the formation of resistant bacteria compared to the unmodified CIP. Closer inspection of a possible resistance mechanism by genome sequencing of the topoisomerase IV region of resistant S. aureus revealed that this bacterium mutates at the same position when building up resistance to CIP and to Me-PMOx27-EDA-xCIP. However, the S. aureus cells that became resistant against the polymer conjugate are fully susceptible to CIP. Thus, conjugation of CIP with PMOx seems to alter the resistance mechanism.
与抗生素结合的聚合物对耐药性形成的影响很少被研究。在本研究中,
环丙沙星(
CIP)通过两种不同的间隔器与端基为
乙烯二胺的聚(
2-甲基-2-噁唑啉)(Me-PMOx28-E
DA)结合(
CIP修饰的α,α'-二
氯对二甲苯—x
CIP,
CIP修饰的
氯乙酰氯—e
CIP)。结合物对多种细菌株的抗菌活性显示出对间隔器性质的高度依赖。包含潜在可裂解连接子的Me-PMOx39-E
DA-e
CIP与Me-PMOx27-E
DA-x
CIP相比,抗菌活性不表现出分子量的依赖性。对这两种结合物在
金黄色葡萄球菌和大肠杆菌中的耐药性形成进行了研究。与未修饰的
CIP相比,这两种结合物均表现出显著延迟耐药细菌形成的潜力。通过对耐药
金黄色葡萄球菌的拓扑异构酶IV区域进行
基因组测序,进一步检查了可能的耐药机制,发现该细菌在对
CIP和Me-PMOx27-E
DA-x
CIP形成耐药时,需要在相同位置发生突变。然而,对聚合物结合物产生耐药性的
金黄色葡萄球菌细胞对
CIP仍然完全敏感。因此,将
CIP与PMOx结合似乎改变了耐药机制。