The antibacterial structure-activity relationship for common chitosan derivatives

The relationship between the degree of substitution and antibacterial activity was studied for six common chitosan derivatives N, N,N-trimethyl chitosan (TMC_NH2/TM and TMC_TM/DM) N-(2-(N,N,N-trimethylammoniumyl)acetyl)-chitin (TACin), N-(2-hydroxyl) propyl-3-trimethyl ammonium chitosan (HTC), hydroxypropyl chitosan (HPC), thioglycolic chitosan (TGC) and carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC). The degree of substitution (DS) in the 36 studied samples ranged from 0.02 to 1.1 as determined by ¹H NMR. The activity was determined as the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against S. aureus and E. coli at pH 7.2 and 5.5. The antibacterial effect of TMC and TACin increased with DS. Samples of these derivatives with high DS were more active than chitosan at pH 7.2. HTC was more active than chitosan against S. aureus, but this activity was not affected by DS. In other cases, the activity of HTC decreased with an increase in DS. The DS for the TGC was very low and the activity was similar to unmodified chitosan. The activity of HPC decreased with DS. CMC was not active in this study.

Keywords: Antimicrobial; Chitosan; Degree of substitution; Escherichia coli; Staphylococcus aureus.