Tuning Net Charge in Aliphatic Polycarbonates Alters Solubility and Protein Complexation Behavior

Published

August 26, 2021

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.

Citation

ACS Ω

Volume

6

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.1c02523

Local Download

Keywords

aliphatic polycarbonates, polyampholytes, small angle neutron scattering, dynamic light scattering, polymer/protein complexes, self-coacervation

Citation

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 15, 2025)