Amino Acid Dependent Performance of Modified Chitosan Against Bacteria and Red Blood Cell

In order to combat antibiotic resistance, the development of new antibacterial agents is essential. In this study, we prepared four types of amino acid modified chitosan (CS-AA). Compared with chitosan modified with hydrophobic amino acids, the chitosan modified with positively charged amino acids showed higher antibacterial efficiency against Escherichia coli (E. coli) under similar grafting rate. CS-AA achieves antibacterial properties mainly by destroying the integrity of bacterial cell membranes. All the four types of CS-AA show low toxicity towards red blood cells. This work indicates that positively charged groups are more important than hydrophobic groups in the design of chitosan-based antibacterial agents, and provides helpful information for the molecular design of effective antibacterial agents.