Supervisors info:
Ιατρού Ερμόλαος, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Χημείας, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Summary:
The current survey investigates the synthesis of a series of pH- and temperature-responsive amphiphilic block terpolymers, their role as multifunctional polypeptide systems and their future potential as drug delivery systems. For that reason, well-defined homo- and copolypeptides with controllable molecular characteristics, were synthesized through Ring Opening Polymerization of N-carboxyanhydrides of the α-amino acids (NCAs). The synthesis of four N-carboxyanhydrates is presented thoroughly. For the synthesis of the co- and terpolymers, the iniator was the amino-functionalized PEO-NH2. Moreover, for the synthesis of the well-defined homopolymers, the iniators were the secondary amine, dimethylamine and the primary amine hexylamine. High vacuum techniques were used for the purification of reagents, solvents and for the synthesis of NCAs and polymers. In this way, the high purity of monomers along with the high vacuum techniques resulted to the synthesis of well-defined amphiphilic hybrid polymers of PEO-b-P(His-co-Sar x), where x represents the molar percentage of sarcosine. Furthermore, the synthesis of well-defined homopolymers of PTrp, PSar and PGlu was achieved. The results revealed that, the presence of sarcosine residues affected the secondary structure of the polypeptide chain, fact that was investigated by FTIR spectroscopy and Circular Dichroism technique.
Keywords:
multifunctional, polypeptides, self-assembly, secondary structure, NCAs
