Center for Nanomedicine and Department of Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital , Harvard Medical School , Boston , Massachusetts 02115 , United States.
Center for Hybrid Nanostructures (CHyN) , Univeristät Hamburg , 22607 Hamburg , Germany.
ACS Nano. 2019 May 28;13(5):4876-4882. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.9b01696. Epub 2019 Apr 15.
With recent advances in polymer chemistry, materials science, and nanotechnology, pH-responsive polymers have a significant impact in a number of diverse fields. Fundamental studies of these polymers are thus highly desirable as they may lead to new insights into the rational design of pH-responsive polymers with specific effects. In this Perspective, we focus on the nanobuffering of pH-responsive polymers (NBPRP). Although researchers have known of such buffering effects for more than a century, for example, in the context of the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation, modern synthesis and analysis routes now enable us to analyze these effects on the nanometer scale. In this way, the NBPRP phenomenon was explicitly defined and described by Gauthier and colleagues in the February issue of ACS Nano. Here, we highlight several potential areas in which the NBPRP could enable innovative classes of biological applications. We expect deeper mechanistic understanding of nanobuffering effects induced by pH-responsive polymers to have a significant impact on the future development and applications of these polymers.
随着聚合物化学、材料科学和纳米技术的最新进展，pH 响应聚合物在许多不同的领域都有重大影响。因此，对这些聚合物进行基础研究是非常必要的，因为这可能会为合理设计具有特定效果的 pH 响应聚合物提供新的见解。在本观点中，我们重点介绍 pH 响应聚合物的纳米缓冲（NBPRP）。尽管研究人员一个多世纪以来就已经了解到这种缓冲效应，例如在 Henderson-Hasselbalch 方程的背景下，但现代合成和分析途径现在使我们能够在纳米尺度上分析这些效应。通过这种方式，Gauthier 及其同事在 ACS Nano 杂志 2 月号上明确定义并描述了 NBPRP 现象。在这里，我们强调了 NBPRP 可能能够实现的几个潜在的生物应用领域。我们期望对 pH 响应聚合物诱导的纳米缓冲效应有更深入的机制理解，这将对这些聚合物的未来发展和应用产生重大影响。
