Evaluation of in-Vitro Antimicrobial Antioxidant and Anticancer Activity of a New Carboxymethylchitosan-Based Cyanoguanidine Copolymer

Abstract

A new carboxymethylchitosan-based acryloylcyanoguanidine copolymer (CMCS-g-ACG) has been successfully prepared using the grafting technique. The grafting percentage, grafting efficiency, and homopolymer percentage were 86, 85, and 14%, respectively. The chemical structure and surface morphology of the CMCS-g-ACG copolymer were confirmed using elemental analysis, FTIR, 1H-NMR, XRD, and SEM. The copolymer has greater inhibition activity on both Escherichia coli (E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and Candida albicans (C. albicans) in comparison to CMCS. It is more potent against E. coli than S. aureus. At 2000 μg/mL concentration, CMCS and the copolymer exhibited DPPH scavenging of 63.45% ± 4.19 and 78.56% ± 4.61, respectively. The copolymer of concentration less than 62.5 μg/mL was safe on the normal human lung fibroblast cells. The growth inhibition of the breast cancer cells at 500 μg/mL was 79.59% ± 2.12 and 91.41% ± 2.34 for CMCS and the copolymer, respectively. Thus, the insertion of ACG into CMCS highly boosted its antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer characteristics. It is a proper strategy to realize good systems to compete the traditional drugs used for such applications.