Glycopolymers, synthetic polymers carrying pendant carbohydrate moieties, have been extensively investigated in numerous biomedical applications. Merging the attributes of synthetic polymers and carbohydrates, glycopolymers combine the synthetic accessibility of polymer chemistry with the unique applications and structural characteristics of polysaccharides. Here, we are investigating synthetic polypeptides with modified sialic acid pendant groups as antiviral polymers. These glycopolymers can potentially inhibit influenza A viruses by mimicking their pathogenic polyvalent interactions (the multiple simultaneous binding interactions between the proteins on the virus surface and sialic acid-terminated ligands on the cell surface). We are preparing a library of sialic acid-functionalized synthetic polypeptides to explore the structure–property relationships in the context of their antiviral performance. The inhibition efficacy of these systematically varied materials will produce fundamental insights that enable the design of increasingly effective glycopolymers for antiviral applications.

Synthesizing a library of sialic acid-functionalized polypeptides to investigate polyvalent interactions for influenza inhibition

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