The use of synthetic polymers has found a broad range of interesting applications in biotechnology and medicine. In this context a combination of stimuli-responsive polymers and biologically relevant side chains can be used to form sophisticated smart polymer conjugates. Especially the polymer end-groups are of interest for biofunctionalizations, as they allow a defined one-to-one conjugation. Within this project we try to produce well-defined polymers with two or more different functionalities. Rare-earth metal-mediated group transfer polymerization (REM-GTP) is particularly suitable for this purpose, since it enables the synthesis of biocompatible polyvinylphosphonates with narrow polydispersities and tuneable molecular weight. The highly active REM-GTP catalysts are able to polymerize a plethora of complex vinylphosphonates such as diallyl vinylphosphonate and the recently developed dipropargyl vinylphosphonate. In addition to the conventional diethyl vinylphosphonates these two functional derivatives allow to integrate different functional groups in the resulting polyvinylphosphonates. These precisely designed copolymers can be decorated selectively with several motifs <i>via</i> post polymerization functionalization. The side chains were modified orthogonally <i>via</i> azide alkyne cyclo additions and followed by thiol ene click chemistry. This synthetic route involves orthogonal functionalization strategies to couple different biological motifs such as folic acid, cholesterol, or the tripeptide arginylglycylaspartic acid (RGD), in a controlled manner. The influence of these modified polymers on human cells is analyzed by cell tests while their localization is investigated by confocal microscopy. Clearly, polyvinylphosphonate-based bioconjugates provide a promising platform for potential applications in a biological and medical context.

Orthogonal functionalized bio-polymer-conjugates: Targeted coupling of bio-active motifs to pre-designed polyvinylphosphonates

ACS Spring 2022

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