THE EFFECT OF TAIL LENGTH VARIATION ON MINIMUM INHIBITORY CONCENTRATION, AND BIOFILM DISRUPTION

The over use of antibiotics has led to an increase in antibiotic resistance. And because of this very reason, these resistant microbes can thrive and multiply to spread and cause nosocomial, or hospital-acquired infections even in the presence of antibiotics. To address this issue, the development of novel amphiphiles is one possibility to explore to curb the spread of resistant infections and to reduce hospital-associated mortality. Amphiphiles contain charged hydrophilic head group(s) and hydrophobic hydrocarbon tail(s) which likely injects into the cell membrane, resulting in cell lysis. A novel series of tetra-cationic amphiphiles consisting of two dimethylalkylammonium and one dimethylethanolammonium head group with two hydrocarbon tails (8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 carbons long) were synthesized to study the effect of tail length of these compounds on antimicrobial activity. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined for each amphiphile using seven bacterial strains. The MIC value was lowest for the compound with a tail length of 12 carbons per tail for all bacteria tested. The rate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm disruption was also determined. And the amphiphiles tested disrupted a maximum of approximately 65 percent of established biofilm which is similar to tobramycin, an antibiotic used to treat P. aeruginosa infections.

Additional Abstract Information

Student(s): Smita Bajgain, Elizabeth Rogers, Stephanie Sharpes

Department: Chemistry and Biochemistry, Biology

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Kevin Caran, Dr. Kyle Seifert

Type: Poster

Year: 2018