Yang Xu, Wang Zhiwei, Sun Jing
Key Laboratory of Biobased Polymer Materials, Shandong Provincial Education Department, School of Polymer Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China.
Polymers (Basel). 2020 Apr 3;12(4):798. doi: 10.3390/polym12040798.
Photoresponsive polymers have attracted increasing interest for a variety of applications. Here, we report a family of photoresponsive polypeptoid-based copolymer poly(ethylene glycol)--poly(N-(S-(-nitrobenzyl)-thioethyl) glycine)--poly(N-(2-phenylethyl) glycine) (PEG--PNSN--PNPE) synthesized by the controlled ring-opening polymerization (ROP) technique. The key feature of the design is to incorporate both -nitrobenzyl group moiety to offer the photoresponsive property and phenethyl residues to tune the structural and amphiphilic property of the system. We demonstrate that the cleavage degree of the o-nitrobenzyl group can reach to 100% upon UV-irradiation. With delicate design, a photoresponsive vesicle-to-sphere transition has been observed that facilitates the release of the encapsulants. This work provides a facile approach to prepare a type of photoresponsive polymers with tunable properties for drug delivery.
光响应聚合物因其多种应用而受到越来越多的关注。在此，我们报道了通过可控开环聚合（ROP）技术合成的一类基于光响应聚肽的共聚物聚（乙二醇）-聚（N-（S-（-硝基苄基）-硫代乙基）甘氨酸）-聚（N-（2-苯乙基）甘氨酸）（PEG-PNSN-PNPE）。该设计的关键特征是同时引入硝基苄基部分以提供光响应特性，并引入苯乙基残基以调节体系的结构和两亲性。我们证明，在紫外线照射下，邻硝基苄基的裂解程度可达到100%。通过精心设计，观察到了光响应性囊泡到球体的转变，这有利于封装剂的释放。这项工作为制备一类具有可调性质的用于药物递送的光响应聚合物提供了一种简便方法。
