Chemists synthesize an antimicrobial compound from innocent chitin and selenium

RUDN chemists obtained substances with excessive antibacterial exercise based mostly on chitosan and selenium. One of them even outperformed widespread antibiotics. The outcomes are printed in Applied Biochemistry and Microbiology.

Chitosan is a substance from the group of amino sugars, which is obtained from chitin, the principle part of arthropod exoskeleton. Due to its biological activity, chitosan is used, for instance, to create biodegradable movies with antibacterial properties or different coatings the place antibiotic motion is required: in meals manufacturing, medication and trade. The scope of chitosan is giant, however nonetheless restricted. This is as a result of low solubility and the so-called cationic density. To improve it, scientists modify chitosan molecules by including practical fragments to them. RUDN University chemists have “sewn” a selenium-containing fragment to chitosan and obtained a extremely efficient anti-viral agent.

“Because of the rise in antimicrobial resistance, the development of new antibacterial agents is needed. This is a priority task of modern pharmacology. Chitosan is one of the preferred compounds with antibacterial activity. Among its advantages are biocompatibility, hypoallergenicity, biodegradability and non-stickiness. At the same time, poor water solubility and low cationic density limit the antibacterial effect of chitosan. To overcome these limitations, chitosan is modified. Our goal was the chemical modification of chitosan with a selenium-containing fragment,” says Andrey Kritchenkov, Ph.D., researcher at Department of Inorganic Chemistry, RUDN University.

RUDN chemists obtained a brand new compound by dissolving chitosan in a selenadiazole by-product in numerous proportions. The antibacterial impact of the obtained substances was examined on a gram-positive Staphylococcus Aureus and a gram-negative Escherichia Coli, and likewise in contrast with business antibiotics ampicillin and gentamicin.

All synthesized compounds demonstrated antibacterial exercise similar to that of antibi. The X-Se-65 complicated with 65% substitution of the selenediazole by-product turned out to be the simplest. On a Petri dish, it destroyed Staphylococcus aureus inside a radius of 34.4 mm (ampicillin did it inside a radius of 30.3 mm), and E. coli was not noticed inside a radius of 26.3 mm from it (and 22.3 mm from gentamicin).

“The new compounds have shown strong antibacterial activity against both S. aureus and E. coli . Moreover, their antibacterial activity is comparable to the antibiotics ampicillin and gentamicin, and one of the compounds even exceeded them. This fact can be explained by the symbiotic effect of the antibacterial fragment with selenium and chitosan. We have obtained a highly active, antibacterial derivative of chitosan, which is of undoubted interest for further in vivo research,” says Anton Egorov, RUDN Research Assistant.

Provided by
Russian Foundation for Basic Research