Bacterial enzymes polymer degradation

Hydrogels that are based on natural products are more acceptable from the standpoint of toxicity-related issues and are therefore preferable to azo-based polymers. However, chemical derivatization, if performed without proper understanding, can lead to modifications of the hydrogels to products that will not degrade readily in the colon because it is possible that the new structures will not be recognized by the colonic bacterial enzymes for degradation. Also, bulk degradation is preferred to surface erosion because it... 

Attempts have been made to achieve colon-speeifie delivery of drugs. These include prodrugs and enteric coated polymers that are sensitive to degradation by bacterial enzymes, and matrices and hydrogels suseeptible to degradation by baeterial enzymes. 

One of the first examples is a polymer network that consists of polyvinylalco-hol crosslinked by a thrombin-degradable peptide-linker [108] and the encapsulated antibiotic Gentamycin. In the case of a wound infection, the thrombin content increases dramatically. This enzyme degrades the co-network, and releases the Gentamycin, which then fights a possible bacterial infection (see Fig. 7). Suzuki and Tanihara have shown that the antibiotic is only released in the presence of thrombin and only then effectively kills S. aureus and P. aeruginosa cells [109, 110],... 

In the former case, a bacterial or fungal colony on the surface of the material releases an extracellular degrading enzyme which breaks down the polymer chains into smaller units (dimers and ohgomers), which then are absorbed through the microorganisms ceU membrane and metabolised as a source of nutrient (carbon). It has been proposed that this mechanism first hydrolyses the chains of the amorphous phase of poly-(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) and then proceeds to attack the chains in the crystalline state. The enzymatic degradation rate decreases as the crystallinity increases [15, 16]. 

Information on the hydrolytic activity in marine sediments has been obtained from the use of model substrates labeled with fluorescent dyes such as methylumbelliferone (MUF) or fluorescein. These substrates may be small dimeric molecules, the hydrolytic cleavage of which releases the fluorescence signal, which is then indicative of the activity of specific enzymes such as glucosidase, chitobiase, lipase, ami-nopeptidase or esterase (Chrost 1991). Also large fluorescently labeled polymers such as the polysaccharides laminarin or pullulan have been used in experiments to demonstrate the mechanism and kinetics of bacterial degradation (Amosti 1996). 

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