Antimicrobial-Peptide-Inspired Mixed-Charge Polyurethane Copolymer Hydrogels: Charge-Ratio Design and Screening for Infected Wound Repair
Abstract
Inspired by the ionic and amphiphilic motifs of antimicrobial peptides, this study designed several mixed-charge polyurethane (MCPU) copolymer hydrogels in which the cation/anion charge ratio (C/A = 1.0-1.3)serves as the single structural variable.Charge-ratio tuning produced four physically crosslinked networks covering a 20-fold range in tensile strength (σb = 5.15-104 kPa) and a qualitative shift in network dynamics: C/A1.2 was identified as the mechanical optimum (σb = 104 kPa, toughness = 867 kJ m -3 ) and C/A1.3 (σb = 5.15 kPa), the most compliant one, was the only composition with tan δ > 1 across 10 to 1 rad s -1 (1.02→1.84),demonstrating viscous-dominant behavior at low deformation rates.Further, the antibacterial testing shows that only C/A1.2 and C/A1.3 are efficient contact-active bactericidal agents against 10 6 CFU mL -1 of S. aureus.Yet stepwise biosafety screening, cytocompatibility, hemolysis, and subcutaneous infected-interface evaluation, selected C/A1.3 over the mechanical optimum, C/A1.2.Moreover, the acute S. aureus-infected full-thickness wound model reveals that C/A1.3 is comparable to a clinically used antibacterial wound gel (Prontosan), achieving 98.3% bacterial reduction, accelerated wound closure, and attenuated IL-6/TNF-α expression.Notably, C/A1.3 presented a faster early wound closure performance than Prontosan (≈58% versus ≈21% at day 4).This work presents a series of charge-ratio-tunable MCPU copolymer hydrogels and a stepwise screening strategy for antibacterial wound interface applications.
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BibTeX
@misc{wang2026antimicrobialpeptideinspired,
title = {{Antimicrobial-Peptide-Inspired Mixed-Charge Polyurethane Copolymer Hydrogels: Charge-Ratio Design and Screening for Infected Wound Repair}},
author = {Haoran Wang},
howpublished = {ChemRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.26434/chemrxiv.15009689/v1},
url = {https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009689/v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Antimicrobial-Peptide-Inspired Mixed-Charge Polyurethane Copolymer Hydrogels: Charge-Ratio Design and Screening for Infected Wound Repair
AU - Haoran Wang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/30
PB - ChemRxiv
DO - 10.26434/chemrxiv.15009689/v1
UR - https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009689/v1
AB - Inspired by the ionic and amphiphilic motifs of antimicrobial peptides, this study designed several mixed-charge polyurethane (MCPU) copolymer hydrogels in which the cation/anion charge ratio (C/A = 1.0-1.3)serves as the single structural variable.Charge-ratio tuning produced four physically crosslinked networks covering a 20-fold range in tensile strength (σb = 5.15-104 kPa) and a qualitative shift in network dynamics: C/A1.2 was identified as the mechanical optimum (σb = 104 kPa, toughness = 867 kJ m -3 ) and C/A1.3 (σb = 5.15 kPa), the most compliant one, was the only composition with tan δ > 1 across 10 to 1 rad s -1 (1.02→1.84),demonstrating viscous-dominant behavior at low deformation rates.Further, the antibacterial testing shows that only C/A1.2 and C/A1.3 are efficient contact-active bactericidal agents against 10 6 CFU mL -1 of S. aureus.Yet stepwise biosafety screening, cytocompatibility, hemolysis, and subcutaneous infected-interface evaluation, selected C/A1.3 over the mechanical optimum, C/A1.2.Moreover, the acute S. aureus-infected full-thickness wound model reveals that C/A1.3 is comparable to a clinically used antibacterial wound gel (Prontosan), achieving 98.3% bacterial reduction, accelerated wound closure, and attenuated IL-6/TNF-α expression.Notably, C/A1.3 presented a faster early wound closure performance than Prontosan (≈58% versus ≈21% at day 4).This work presents a series of charge-ratio-tunable MCPU copolymer hydrogels and a stepwise screening strategy for antibacterial wound interface applications.
ER -