Title
Hybrid polymers bearing oligo-L-lysine(carboxybenzyl)s: synthesis and investigations of secondary structure
Author
Merve Basak Canalp, Wolfgang H. Binder
Year
2020
Journal
RSC Advances
Abstract
Hybrid polymers of peptides resembling (partially) folded protein structures are promising materials in biomedicine, especially in view of folding-interactions between different segments. In this study polymers bearing repetitive peptidic folding elements, composed of N-terminus functionalized bis-ω-ene-functional oligo-L-lysine(carboxybenzyl(Z))s (Lysn) with repeating units (n) of 3, 6, 12, 24 and 30 were successfully synthesized to study their secondary structure introduced by conformational interactions between their chains. The pre-polymers of ADMET, narrowly dispersed Lysns, were obtained by ring opening polymerization (ROP) of N-carboxyanhydride (NCA) initiated with 11-amino-undecene, following N-terminus functionalization with 10-undecenoyl chloride. The resulting Lysns were subsequently polymerized via ADMET polymerization by using Grubbs’ first generation (G1) catalyst in 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) generating the ADMET polymers (A-[Lysn]m) (m = 2–12) with molecular weights ranging from 3 to 28 kDa, displaying polydispersity (Đ) values in the range of 1.5–3.2. After chemical analyses of Lysns and A-[Lysn]ms by 1H-NMR, GPC and MALDI-ToF MS, secondary structural investigations were probed by CD spectroscopy and IR spectroscopy in 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE). In order to study A-[Lysn]ms with defined molecular weights and low polydispersity values (Đ = 1.03–1.48), the ADMET polymers A-[Lysn=3]m=3 and A-[Lysn=24]m=4 were fractionated by preparative GPC, and subsequently analysed by 1H-NMR, analytical GPC, MALDI-ToF MS and CD spectroscopy. We can demonstrate the influence of chain length of the generated polymers on the formation of secondary structures by comparing Lysns with varying n values to the ADMET-polymers with the help of spectroscopic techniques such as CD and FTIR-spectroscopy in a helicogenic solvent.
Instrument
J-810
Keywords
Circular dichroism, Polymers, Secondary structure, Chemical stability, Biochemistry