Affinity adsorbents for the vancomycin group of antibiotics

The vancomycin group of antibiotics kill Gram-positive bacteria by binding to nascent bacterial cell-wall peptidoglycan bearing the C-terminal sequenc e -D-Ala-D-Ala. In this paper, affinity adsorbents for the vancomycin group of antibiotics were prepared by immobilizing the peptidoglycan analogues - D-Ala-D-Ala, -succinyl-D-Ala and -succinyl-Gly on to crosslinked poly(N,N-d imethylacrylamide). The adsorption capacities of the three adsorbents for d emethyl-vancomycin were 0.59, 0.35 and 0.29 mmol/g, respectively. The adsor ption capacity of the adsorbent with -D-Ala-D-Ala for vancomycin was 0.53 m mol/g. In contrast, the adsorbent bearing -succinyl-L-Ala hardly adsorbed d emethylvancomycin. Aqueous sodium carbonate (0.4 M)/acetonitrile (7/3, v/v) completely desorbed demethylvancomycin adsorbed on the adsorbents.