Search results for "bioengineering"
showing 10 items of 1963 documents
Joining Two Natural Motifs: Catechol-Containing Poly(phosphoester)s.
2017
Numerous catechol-containing polymers, including biodegradable polymers, are currently heavily discussed for modern biomaterials. However, there is no report combining poly(phosphoester)s (PPEs) with catechols. Adhesive PPEs have been prepared via acyclic diene metathesis polymerization. A novel acetal-protected catechol phosphate monomer was homo- and copolymerized with phosphoester comonomers with molecular weights up to 42000 g/mol. Quantitative release of the catechols was achieved by careful hydrolysis of the acetal groups without backbone degradation. Degradation of the PPEs under basic conditions revealed complete and statistical degradation of the phosphotri- to phosphodiesters. In …
Universal Concept for the Implementation of a Single Cleavable Unit at Tunable Position in Functional Poly(ethylene glycol)s
2013
Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) with acid-sensitive moieties gained attention particularly for various biomedical applications, such as the covalent attachment of PEG (PEGylation) to protein therapeutics, the synthesis of stealth liposomes, and polymeric carriers for low-molecular-weight drugs. Cleavable PEGs are favored over their inert analogues because of superior pharmacodynamic and/or pharmacokinetic properties of their formulations. However, synthetic routes to acetal-containing PEGs published up to date either require enormous efforts or result in ill-defined materials with a lack of control over the molecular weight. Herein, we describe a novel methodology to implement a single acetalde…
Secondary Structure-Driven Self-Assembly of Thiol-Reactive Polypept(o)ides
2021
Secondary structure formation differentiates polypeptides from most of the other synthetic polymers, and the transitions from random coils to rod-like α-helices or β-sheets represent an additional parameter to direct self-assembly and the morphology of nanostructures. We investigated the influence of distinct secondary structures on the self-assembly of reactive amphiphilic polypept(o)ides. The individual morphologies can be preserved by core cross-linking via chemoselective disulfide bond formation. A series of thiol-responsive copolymers of racemic polysarcosine-block-poly(S-ethylsulfonyl-dl-cysteine) (pSar-b-p(dl)Cys), enantiopure polysarcosine-block-poly(S-ethylsulfonyl-l-cysteine) (pSa…
Hydroxamic Acid: An Underrated Moiety? Marrying Bioinorganic Chemistry and Polymer Science
2020
Even 150 years after their discovery, hydroxamic acids are mainly known as the starting material for the Lossen rearrangement in textbooks. However, hydroxamic acids feature a plethora of existing and potential applications ranging from medical purposes to materials science, based on their excellent complexation properties. This underrated functional moiety can undergo a broad variety of organic transformations and possesses unique coordination properties for a large variety of metal ions, for example, Fe(III), Zn(II), Mn(II), and Cr(III). This renders it ideal for biomedical applications in the field of metal-associated diseases or the inhibition of metalloenzymes, as well as for the separ…
HPMA copolymers as surfactants in the preparation of biocompatible nanoparticles for biomedical application.
2012
In this work we describe the application of amphiphilic N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide (HPMA)-based copolymers as polymeric surfactants in miniemulsion techniques. HPMA-based copolymers with different ratios of HPMA (hydrophilic) to laurylmethacrylate (LMA; hydrophobic) units were synthesized by RAFT polymerization and postpolymerization modification. The amphiphilic polymers can act as detergents in both the miniemulsion polymerization of styrene and the miniemulsion process in combination with solvent evaporation, which was applied to polystyrene and polylactide. Under optimized conditions, monodisperse colloids can be prepared. The most promising results could be obtained by using the…
Cationic Copolymerization of 3,3-Bis(hydroxymethyl)oxetane and Glycidol: Biocompatible Hyperbranched Polyether Polyols with High Content of Primary H…
2015
The cationic ring-opening copolymerization of 3,3-bis(hydroxymethyl)oxetane (BHMO) with glycidol using different comonomer ratios (BHMO content from 25 to 90%) and BF3OEt2 as an initiator has been studied. Apparent molecular weights of the resulting hyperbranched polyether copolymers ranged from 1400 to 3300 g mol(-1) (PDI: 1.21-1.48; method: SEC, linear PEG standards). Incorporation of both comonomers is evidenced by MALDI-TOF mass spectroscopy. All hyperbranched polyether polyols with high content of primary hydroxyl groups portray good solubility in water, which correlates with an increasing content of glycerol units. Detailed NMR characterization was employed to elucidate the copolymer …
Biodegradable pH-Sensitive Poly(ethylene glycol) Nanocarriers for Allergen Encapsulation and Controlled Release
2015
In the last decades, the number of allergic patients has increased dramatically. Allergen-specific immunotherapy (SIT) is the only available cause-oriented therapy so far. SIT reduces the allergic symptoms, but also exhibits some disadvantages; that is, it is a long-lasting procedure and severe side effects like anaphylactic shock can occur. In this work, we introduce a method to encapsulate allergens into nanoparticles to avoid severe side effects during SIT. Degradable nanocarriers combine the advantage of providing a physical barrier between the encapsulated cargo and the biological environment as well as responding to certain local stimuli (like pH) to release their cargo. This work int…
Poly(Ethylene Glycol) Dimethacrylates with Cleavable Ketal Sites: Precursors for Cleavable PEG-Hydrogels.
2017
The authors introduce poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) based macromonomers containing acid-labile ketal moieties as well as terminal methacrylate units that are amenable to radical polymerization. The synthesis of PEGs of different molecular weights (ranging from 2000 to 13 000 g mol-1 with polydispersities <1.15) with a central ketal unit (PEG-ketal-diol) and their conversion to PEG-ketal-dimethacrylates (PEG-ketal-DMA) is introduced. Degradation rates of both PEG-ketal-diols and PEG-ketal-DMA are investigated by in situ 1 H NMR kinetic studies in deuterated phosphate buffer. Hydrogels containing 0, 5, or 10 wt% of PEG-ketal-DMA and 100, 95, or 90 wt% of PEG-DMA, respectively, are synthesized a…
Physicochemical and Rheological Characterization of Different Low Molecular Weight Gellan Gum Products and Derived Ionotropic Crosslinked Hydrogels
2021
A series of four different low molecular weight gellan gum products was obtained by alkaline hydrolysis with the aim to investigate the impact of the molecular weight on the rheological properties of the polysaccharide aqueous dispersions and on the physicochemical characteristics of derived ionotropic crosslinked hydrogels. In particular, thermo-rheological analysis was conducted on aqueous dispersions to study the influence of molecular weight on the thermogelation properties typical of the native polysaccharide while strain sweep experiments were conducted to establish if aqueous dispersion shows a viscoelastic behavior. The effect of different Ca2+ on the rheological properties of hydro…
Prospective Cancer Therapies Using Stimuli‐Responsive DNA Nanostructures
2021
Financial support by the Emil Aaltonen Foundation, the Sigrid Jusélius Foundation, the Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation, Academy of Finland (grants no. 317042 and 331151), the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation and the Vilho, Yrjö and Kalle Väisälä Foundation of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters is gratefully acknowledged Nanostructures based on DNA self-assembly present an innovative way to address the increasing need for target-specific delivery of therapeutic molecules. Currently, most of the chemotherapeutics being used in clinical practice have undesired and exceedingly high off-target toxicity. This is a challenge in particular for small molecules, and hence, developing robust and ef…