Macromolecular Bioscience

A hybrid polymer brush containing poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) chains and polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) units is immobilized on a gold surface and exhibits an excellent protein resistance with long-term stability.

Near-monodisperse redox-sensitive micelles can be obtained from cholesterol-conjugated biomimetic copolymers, which are prepared by sequential ROP and ATRP using a novel kind of double-dead initiator. The resultant micelles can be used as a carrier to encapsulate hydrophobic guest molecules, and the release manner can be regulated by a redox reagent, DTT.

A series of novel triblock copolymers with poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (DMAEMA) blocks flanking a hydrophobic poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate] (PHB) block is synthesized and the gene transfection efficiencies of these polymers are reported. Compared with PEI or PDMAEMA homopolymers, the incorporation of PHB significantly improves the gene transfection efficiency. This exciting finding heralds new developments in the area of polymeric gene delivery vectors.

The preparation of polymersomes with tumor-targeting potential is described. To this end, polymersomes are equipped with a strained cyclooctyne and a tumor targeting single-domain antibody (A12) is functionalized with an azide using expressed protein ligation (EPL). Conjugation of the two yields polymersomes with an A12-coated surface.

Polyamide polyelectrolytes (PEs) with controlled thiolation are prepared from an L-aspartic acid-derived precursor, polysuccinimide. These counter PEs form complexes that undergo spontaneous, reagentless self-crosslinking via bioreducible disulfide bonds, significantly augmenting their stability under biorelevant conditions. These complexes efficiently transport an entrapped peptide cargo inside A549 cell lines with high cell viability.