Polymeric coatings that inactivate both influenza virus and pathogenic bacteria

Abstract

Painting a glass slide with branched or linear N,N-dodecyl methyl-polyethylenimines (PEIs) and certain other hydrophobic PEI derivatives enables it to kill influenza virus with essentially a 100% efficiency (at least a 4-log reduction in the viral titer) within minutes, as well as the airborne human pathogenic bacteria Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. For most of the coating polyions, this virucidal action is shown to be on contact, i.e., solely by the polymeric chains anchored to the slide surface; for others, a contribution of the polyion leaching from the painted surface cannot be ruled out. A relationship between the structure of the derivatized PEI and the resultant virucidal activity of the painted surface has been elucidated.

Fig. 1.

Hydrophobic PEI derivatives prepared in the study. (A) Schematic representation of the N-dodecylation and subsequent N-methylation of branched PEIs (see Materials and Methods for details). In the case of 1, the letters a, b, and c correspond to the N,N-dodecyl methyl-polycations prepared from 750-, 25-, and 2-kDa PEIs, respectively. (B) Chemical structures of linear PEI-based polymers synthesized in this work. In the case of 2, the letters a, b, and c correspond to the N,N-dodecyl methyl-polycations prepared from 217-, 21.7-, and 2.17-kDa PEIs, respectively. For 3 through 6, 217-kDa PEI was used.

Fig. 2.

The time course of inactivation of influenza virus (WSN strain) by a glass slide painted with 2a at r.t. See Materials and Methods for details.

Fig. 3.

The virucidal activity against influenza virus (WSN strain) of glass slides painted with 2a, 4, and 5 after different times of exposure at r.t. See Materials and Methods for details.