Development of Low‐Toxicity Antimicrobial Polycarbonates Bearing Lysine Residues.

Antibiotic resistance has been threatening public health for a long period, while the COVID pandemic aggravated the scenario. To combat antibiotic resistance strains, host defense peptides (HDPs) mimicking molecules have attracted considerable attention. Herein, we reported a series of polycarbonates bearing cationic lysine amino acid residues that could mimic the mechanism of action of HDPs and possess broad‐spectrum antimicrobial activity. Moreover, those polymers had negligible toxicity toward red blood cells and mammalian cells. The membrane‐disruption mechanism endows the lysine‐containing polycarbonates with low possibility of resistance development and the fast killing kinetics, making them promising candidates for antimicrobial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]