Glycopolymers as Antiadhesives of E. coli Strains Inducing Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

n-Heptyl α-d-mannose (HM) is a nanomolar antagonist of FimH, a virulence factor of E. coli. Herein we report on the construction of multivalent HM-based glycopolymers as potent antiadhesives of type 1 piliated E. coli. We investigate glycopolymer/FimH and glycopolymer/bacteria interactions and show that HM-based glycopolymers efficiently inhibit bacterial adhesion and disrupt established cell-bacteria interactions in vitro at very low concentration (0.1 μM on a mannose unit basis). On a valency-corrected basis, HM-based glycopolymers are, respectively, 10(2) and 10(6) times more potent than HM and d-mannose for their capacity to disrupt the binding of adherent-invasive E. coli to T84 intestinal epithelial cells. Finally, we demonstrate that the antiadhesive capacities of HM-based glycopolymers are preserved ex vivo in the colonic loop of a transgenic mouse model of Crohn's disease. All together, these results underline the promising scope of HM-based macromolecular ligands for the antiadhesive treatment of E. coli induced inflammatory bowel diseases.