Antifungal Activity: Conjugated Polymers for Light‐Activated Antifungal Activity (Small 4/2012)

The recent emergence of antibioticresistant micro-organisms has been a public-health problem world wide. A cationic polythiophene–porphyrin dyad (PTP) is shown to exhibit efficient lightactivated antifungal activity. The positive charges and amphiphilic structure of PTP encourage its adsorption to the fungus cell surface based on electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions. Higher efficiency in singlet oxygen (1O2) generation can be attained from PTP upon photoexcitation due to the light-harvesting properties of the polymer backbone and efficient energy transfer from the polythiophene backbone to the porphyrin units. PTP can be used for treating fungal infections at low doses of irradiation light and polymer concentration.