Quaternary Ammonium Compounds: An Antimicrobial Mainstay and Platform for Innovation to Address Bacterial Resistance

Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) have represented one of the most visible and effective classes of disinfectants for nearly a century. With simple preparation, wide structural variety, and versatile incorporation into consumer products, there have been manifold developments and applications of these structures. Generally operating via disruption of one of the most fundamental structures in bacteria-the cell membrane-leading to cell lysis and bacterial death, the QACs were once thought to be impervious to resistance. Developments over the past decades, however, have shown this to be far from the truth. It is now known that a large family of bacterial genes (generally termed qac genes) encode efflux pumps…

• UC
  University City Science Center

  Award: QED-S1403
• DO
  Division of Graduate Education

  Award: DGE1144462