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

Published

August 26, 2021

Author(s)

Nicholas D. 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

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DOI Link

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 (Accessed September 15, 2024)