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Tuning Net Charge in Aliphatic Polycarbonates Alters Solubility and Protein Complexation Behavior
Published
Author(s)
Nicholas Posey, Julia Danischewski, Michael Lueckheide, Yuanchi Ma, Jeffrey Fagan, Vivek Prabhu
Abstract
A synthetic strategy yielded polyelectrolytes and polyampholytes with tunable net charge for complexation and protein binding. Organocatalytic ring-opening polymerizations yielded aliphatic polycarbonates that were functionalized with both carboxylate and ammonium side chains in a post-polymerization, radical-mediated thiol−ene reaction. Incorporating net charge into the polymer architecture altered the chain dimensions in phosphate buffered solution in a manner consistent with selfcomplexation and complexation behavior with model proteins. A net cationic polyampholyte with 5% of carboxylate side chains formed large clusters rather than small complexes with bovine serum albumin, while 50% carboxylate polyampholyte was insoluble. Overall, the aliphatic polycarbonates with varying net charge exhibited different macrophase solution behaviors when mixed with protein, where self-complexation appears to compete with protein binding and larger-scale complexation.
Posey, N.
, Danischewski, J.
, Lueckheide, M.
, Ma, Y.
, Fagan, J.
and Prabhu, V.
(2021),
Tuning Net Charge in Aliphatic Polycarbonates Alters Solubility and Protein Complexation Behavior, ACS Ω, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.1c02523, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=930350
(Accessed October 10, 2025)