Tinajero-Díaz Ernesto, Murphy Robert D, Li Bo, Heise Andreas, Martínez de Ilarduya Antxon
Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, ETSEIB, Diagonal 647, Barcelona, 08028, Spain.
Department of Chemistry, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, 123 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Dublin, Ireland.
Macromol Rapid Commun. 2025 Jul;46(14):e2500069. doi: 10.1002/marc.202500069. Epub 2025 Apr 28.
A simple method is presented for preparing polypeptide nanoparticles using hydrophilic biosynthetic ε-poly(lysine) (εPL) as a reactive surfactant under dispersion polymerization conditions. In situ graft polymerization of benzyl-L-glutamic acid N-carboxyanhydride (BLG-NCA) triggers the self-assembly of amphiphilic copolymers into nanoparticles, which are colloidally stabilized by the remaining εPL amino groups at the particle surface. The average nanoparticle diameter can be controlled in the range of 40-120 nm by varying the initiator-to-NCA ratio, as demonstrated by the correlation between graft copolymer molecular weight (measured by size exclusion chromatography) and the z-average diameter (measured by dynamic light scattering). Secondary structure analysis indicates that the α-helical conformation of poly(benzyl-L-glutamate) (PBLG) grafts plays a role in both accelerating NCA polymerization and stabilizing the nanostructures. This approach is readily scalable to high concentrations and offers a straightforward route to peptidomimetic nanoparticles, entirely composed of amino acids, with promising potential for nanomedicine applications.
本文介绍了一种简单的方法，即在分散聚合条件下，使用亲水性生物合成ε-聚赖氨酸（εPL）作为反应性表面活性剂来制备多肽纳米颗粒。苄基-L-谷氨酸N-羧基酐（BLG-NCA）的原位接枝聚合引发两亲性共聚物自组装成纳米颗粒，这些纳米颗粒通过颗粒表面剩余的εPL氨基在胶体上得以稳定。通过改变引发剂与NCA的比例，平均纳米颗粒直径可控制在40-120nm范围内，尺寸排阻色谱法测得的接枝共聚物分子量与动态光散射法测得的z平均直径之间的相关性证明了这一点。二级结构分析表明，聚（苄基-L-谷氨酸）（PBLG）接枝的α-螺旋构象在加速NCA聚合和稳定纳米结构方面均发挥作用。这种方法易于扩展到高浓度，为完全由氨基酸组成的拟肽纳米颗粒提供了一条直接途径，在纳米医学应用方面具有广阔的潜力。
