Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Biomater Sci. 2021 Jun 4;9(11):4120-4126. doi: 10.1039/d1bm00223f.
With PEG-like properties, such as hydrophilicity and stealth effect against protein absorption, oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG)-functionalized polypeptides have emerged as a new class of biomaterials alternative to PEG with polypeptide-like properties. Synthesis of this class of materials, however, has been demonstrated very challenging, as the synthesis and purification of OEG-functionalized N-carboxyanhydrides (OEG-NCAs) in high purity, which is critical for the success in polymerization, is tedious and often results in low yield. OEG-functionalized polypeptides are therefore only accessible to a few limited labs with expertise in this specialized NCA chemistry and materials. Here, we report the controlled synthesis of OEG-functionalized polypeptides in high yield directly from the OEG-functionalized amino acids via easy and reproducible polymerization of non-purified OEG-NCAs. The prepared amphiphilic block copolypeptides can self-assemble into narrowly dispersed nanoparticles in water, which show properties suitable for drug delivery applications.
具有聚乙二醇（PEG）类似特性，如亲水性和对蛋白质吸收的隐形效果，聚乙二醇（OEG）功能化多肽作为一种具有多肽类似特性的新型生物材料替代物已经出现。然而，由于 OEG 功能化 N-羧酸酐（OEG-NCAs）的合成和纯化非常困难，因此该类材料的合成极具挑战性，这对聚合的成功至关重要，因为其合成和纯化繁琐，而且往往导致收率低。因此，具有 OEG 功能的多肽仅可由少数在这种特殊的 NCA 化学和材料方面具有专业知识的有限实验室获得。在这里，我们报告了通过非纯化的 OEG-NCAs 的简单且可重复的聚合，直接从 OEG 功能化氨基酸中高产率地控制合成 OEG 功能化多肽。所制备的两亲嵌段共多肽可以在水中自组装成分散性良好的纳米粒子，其具有适合药物输送应用的性质。
