TY - JOUR
T1 - Unimolecular Polypeptide Micelles via Ultrafast Polymerization of N-Carboxyanhydrides
AU - Lv, Shixian
AU - Kim, Hojun
AU - Song, Ziyuan
AU - Feng, Lin
AU - Yang, Yingfeng
AU - Baumgartner, Ryan
AU - Tseng, Kuan Ying
AU - Dillon, Shen J.
AU - Leal, Cecilia
AU - Yin, Lichen
AU - Cheng, Jianjun
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was financially supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (CHE 1709820), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2016YFA0201200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51873142, 51573123, and 51722305), the 111 Project, and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2020/5/13
Y1 - 2020/5/13
N2 - Polypeptide micelles are widely used as biocompatible nanoplatforms but often suffer from their poor structural stability. Unimolecular polypeptide micelles can effectively address the structure instability issue, but their synthesis with uniform structure and well-controlled and desired sizes remains challenging. Herein we report the convenient preparation of spherical unimolecular micelles through dendritic polyamine-initiated ultrafast ring-opening polymerization of N-carboxyanhydrides (NCAs). Synthetic polypeptides with exceptionally high molecular weights (up to 85 MDa) and low dispersity (Đ < 1.05) can be readily obtained, which are the biggest synthetic polypeptides ever reported. The degree of polymerization was controlled in a vast range (25-3200), giving access to nearly monodisperse unimolecular micelles with predictable sizes. Many NCA monomers can be polymerized using this ultrafast polymerization method, which enables the incorporation of various structural and functional moieties into the unimolecular micelles. Because of the simplicity of the synthesis and superior control over the structure, the unimolecular polypeptide micelles may find applications in nanomedicine, supermolecular chemistry, and bionanotechnology.
AB - Polypeptide micelles are widely used as biocompatible nanoplatforms but often suffer from their poor structural stability. Unimolecular polypeptide micelles can effectively address the structure instability issue, but their synthesis with uniform structure and well-controlled and desired sizes remains challenging. Herein we report the convenient preparation of spherical unimolecular micelles through dendritic polyamine-initiated ultrafast ring-opening polymerization of N-carboxyanhydrides (NCAs). Synthetic polypeptides with exceptionally high molecular weights (up to 85 MDa) and low dispersity (Đ < 1.05) can be readily obtained, which are the biggest synthetic polypeptides ever reported. The degree of polymerization was controlled in a vast range (25-3200), giving access to nearly monodisperse unimolecular micelles with predictable sizes. Many NCA monomers can be polymerized using this ultrafast polymerization method, which enables the incorporation of various structural and functional moieties into the unimolecular micelles. Because of the simplicity of the synthesis and superior control over the structure, the unimolecular polypeptide micelles may find applications in nanomedicine, supermolecular chemistry, and bionanotechnology.
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U2 - 10.1021/jacs.0c01173
DO - 10.1021/jacs.0c01173
M3 - Article
C2 - 32196323
AN - SCOPUS:85090205484
SN - 0002-7863
VL - 142
SP - 8570
EP - 8574
JO - Journal of the American Chemical Society
JF - Journal of the American Chemical Society
IS - 19
ER -