Facile Regioselective Synthesis of a Novel Chitosan–Pexiganan Conjugate with Potential Interest for the Treatment of Infected Skin Lesions

Abstract

A pexiganan–chitosan conjugate was designed to combine the exceptional bioadhesion and tissue-regenerating abilities of chitosan with the excellent antibiotic properties of pexiganan. We herein report our first results on the successful synthesis, including Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and amino acid analysis of such conjugate, which was prepared by regioselective covalent attachment of a Cys-containing pexiganan analog to the chitosan's amino groups. Further results from ongoing research will be reported.

Keywords:

• Antimicrobials
• biopolymers
• chitosan
• diabetes
• drug delivery
• peptides
• pexiganan

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks are due to FCT (Portugal) for financial support to LAQUIPAI (C. G.) and to CIQUP (P. G.) and also for PhD grant SFRH/BD/13144/2003 (M. B.).

Notes

^a Cys was not considered, as its quantitation by AAA is not reliable.

^b In injected sample, after known dilutions of the original hydrolysate.

^c From the pexiganan-Ala-Ala-Cys amino acid sequence.