Polymer Chemistry

In recent years, fabrications of polymer-protein hybrids with multiresponsiveness have been attracting increasing attention. In our group, we designed triple-responsive polymer-protein networks based on molecular recognition. Reduced bovine serum albumin (BSA) was modified with multiple β-cyclodextrin (βCD) by thiol-disulfide exchange reaction. The βCDmodified BSA was added into the aqueous solution of acrylamide copolymer with pendant adamantyl group, resulting in the formation of triple-responsive polymer-protein network structures. We also synthesized virus-mimicking protein nanogels with temperature-induced reversible structures and redox responsiveness by crosslinking a thermally responsive polymer poly(di-ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate-co-2-(2-pyridyldisulfide)ethyl methacrylate) with reduced BSA molecules through thiol-disulfide exchange reaction. The lower critical solution temperature (LCST) and sizes of the nanogels can be controlled by controlling the reaction conditions. Co-assembly of positively charged patchy micelles and negatively charged BSA molecules into hybrid vesicles was also investigated. The patchy micelles, which were synthesized using block copolymer brushes as templates, leads to co-assembly with protein molecules into vesicular structures. The average size of the assembled structures can be controlled by the molar ratio of BSA to patchy micelles.