Engineering Commons^™

Protein-Polymer Conjugates Synthesized Using Water-Soluble Azlactone-Functionalized Polymers Enable Receptor-Specific Cellular Uptake Toward Targeted Drug Delivery, Julia S. Kim, Allison R. Sirois, Analia J. Vazquez Cegla, Eugenie Jumai'an, Naomi Murata, Maren E. Buck, Sarah J. Moore

Chemistry: Faculty Publications

Conjugation of proteins to drug-loaded polymeric structures is an attractive strategy for facilitating target-specific drug delivery for a variety of clinical needs. Polymers currently available for conjugation to proteins generally have limited chemical versatility for subsequent drug loading. Many polymers that do have chemical functionality useful for drug loading are often insoluble in water, making it difficult to synthesize functional protein–polymer conjugates for targeted drug delivery. In this work, we demonstrate that reactive, azlactone-functionalized polymers can be grafted to proteins, conjugated to a small-molecule fluorophore, and subsequently internalized into cells in a receptor-specific manner. Poly(2-vinyl-4,4-dimethylazlactone), synthesized using reversible addition–fragmentation chain …