As reactive oxygen species (ROS) are natural by-products of oxygen metabolism that may cause chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease, great effort has been put to synthesize numerous antioxidant compounds based on selenium-containing small molecules. However, literatures on selenium-containing polymers are rather scarce. Here we are going to highlight the most recent advances on selenium-containing polymers and their potential bio-applications as ROS-responsive drug delivery vehicles. Take the linear polymer for example, diselenide-containing amphiphilic block copolymer micelles exhibited unique dual redox triggered disassembly behavior in response to a very dilute concentration of ROS (H2O2, 0.01%, v/v) or reductant (glutathione, 0.01 mg/mL).1,2 The diselenide bonds could also be cleaved by ROS generated by photosensitizer under light radiation.3 As gamma rays is one of the most widely used radiation in clinical application and that gamma radiation on water could also produce ROS, selenium-containing polymers were also used for the combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. 4,5 Our work also suggested that the telluride molecules tend to be oxidized to higher valence much more easily than the selenide and sulfide compounds, which means that tellurium-containing compounds are highly sensitive to ROS. The ultra-sensitive and programmable nature of tellurium can be further employed to construct smart materials for future applications in biomedical engineering etc. References: Xu, H.; Cao, W.; Zhang, X. Acc. Chem. Res. 2013, 46, 1647. Ma, N.; Li, Y.; Xu, H.; Wang, Z.; Zhang, X. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 442. Cao, W.; Zhang, X.; Miao, X.; Yang, Z.; Xu, H. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 6233. Ji, S.; Cao, W.; Yu, Y.; Xu, H. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 6781-6785 Cao, W.; Gu, Y.; Meineck, M.; Li, T.; Xu, H. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 5132. Cao, W.; Gu, Y.; Li, T.; Xu, H. Chem. Commun. 2015, 51, 7069.

ROS responsive Se/Te-containing polymers

251st National Meeting (2016)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.