Medical applications antimicrobial activity

Potential medical or pharmaceutical applications have attracted more attention. Studies cover improved efficiency and delivery [334-336, 478-480], improved stability [334], and lower toxicity [50, 315, 334, 374,481] of polysoap bound drugs. The use of polysoaps to fix or stabilize enzymes, antibodies etc. is also discussed [214, 230]. Cationic polysoaps were also studied for antimicrobial activities [277, 278]. 

Knitted fabrics used for medical applications - such as in wound dressings - require a zone of inhibition. These may be studied using the AATCC 147 Parallel Streak Standard Method this is an appropriate semi quantitative method for evaluating the antibacterial activity of diffusible antimicrobial agents on treated fabrics. A test result for a fabric treated with the silver salt suspension and a control fabric is presented in Rg. 5.5, where the tested bacteria was Staphylococcus aureus. 

Polymers with antimicrobial activity are often required for food packaging, sanitary or medical applications. Those materials are... 

Antimicrobial agents have mostly low molecular weight molecules that kill or suppress the growth of viruses, bacteria, or fungi. Molecular aspects on the action of antimicrobial agents have been compiled in the literature (2). An activity against viruses is of minor interest in the polymer industry. A markable exception is in the field of medical applications. 

Biocompatible cationic surfactants from the amino acid lysine (hydrochloride salts of A -lauroyl-lysine methyl ester, IV -miristoyl-lysine methyl ester and A -palmitoyl-lysine methyl ester) show moderate antimicrobial activity against the Gram-positive bacteria. The haemolytic activity of these compounds is considerably lower than those reported for other cationic Ai -acyl amino acid analogues [64]. Taking into account the high biodegradation level and the low haemolytic activity, these compounds could be considered safe surfactants in relation to the cell of the human body. These properties make them suitable candidates for biological and medical applications [65]. 

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