We have developed and tested a novel functionalised nanocarrier for chlorhexidine (CHX) which provides a very strong enhancement of its antimicrobial action. The nanocarrier was based on lightly-cross-linked acrylate copolymer nanogel particles loaded with CHX followed by a surface functionalisation with the cationic polyelectrolyte poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDAC). We explored the antimicrobial effect of the PDAC-coated CHX-loaded nanogel carriers on E. coli, S. auresus, C. cerevisiae and C. reinhardtii and discovered that it is much higher than that of solution with equivalent overall concentration of free CHX. Our experiments also showed a marked increase of the cationic CHX-loaded nanocarriers antimicrobial action on these microorganisms at shorter incubation times compared with the non-coated CHX-loaded nanogel particles at the same CHX concentration and other conditions. We attribute the increase in the antimicrobial activity of the cationically-functionalised nanogel carrier to its electrostatic adhesion to the microbial cells walls which allows much higher CHX concentration to be delivered directly onto the cell surface. The results of this study can be used for development of novel more efficient antialgal, antifungal and antibacterial formulations based on cationically functionalised nanogels. Our method can also be used for boosting the effect of other cationic antimicrobial agents by encapsulating them in cationically-functionalised nanogel carriers. This nanotechnological approach could potentially lead to developing more effective antimicrobial and disinfecting agents, dental formulations for plaque control, wound dressings, antialgal/antibiofouling formulations and novel antifungal agents.

中文翻译：

---

包裹在PDAC-官能化丙烯酸酯共聚物纳米凝胶载体中的洗必泰的放大抗菌作用

我们已经开发并测试了用于氯己定（CHX）的新型功能化纳米载体，该载体可大大增强其抗菌作用。纳米载体基于负载有CHX的轻度交联的丙烯酸酯共聚物纳米凝胶颗粒，然后用阳离子聚电解质聚二烯丙基二甲基氯化铵（PDAC）进行表面官能化。我们探讨了PDAC涂层的CHX加载的纳米凝胶载体对大肠杆菌，金黄色葡萄球菌，酿酒酵母和莱茵衣藻的抗菌作用。并发现它比游离CHX总浓度相同的溶液要高得多。我们的实验还显示，与在相同CHX浓度和其他条件下未涂覆CHX的纳米凝胶颗粒相比，在较短的培养时间内，阳离子CHX的纳米载体对这些微生物的抗菌作用显着增加。我们将阳离子官能化纳米凝胶载体抗微生物活性的提高归因于其对微生物细胞壁的静电粘附，从而使更高的CHX浓度直接传递到细胞表面。这项研究的结果可用于开发基于阳离子官能化纳米凝胶的新型更有效的抗藻，抗真菌和抗菌制剂。通过将其他阳离子抗微生物剂封装在阳离子官能化的纳米凝胶载体中，我们的方法还可用于增强其他阳离子抗微生物剂的作用。这种纳米技术方法可能潜在地导致开发更有效的抗菌剂和消毒剂，用于牙菌斑控制的牙科制剂，伤口敷料，抗藻/抗生物污垢制剂以及新型抗真菌剂。