Influence of the Topology of Poly(L-Cysteine) on the Self-Assembly, Encapsulation and Release Profile of Doxorubicin on Dual-Responsive Hybrid Polypeptides.

Τhe synthesis of a series of novel hybrid block copolypeptides based on poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), poly(l-histidine) (PHis) and poly(l-cysteine) (PCys) is presented. The synthesis of the terpolymers was achieved through a ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of the corresponding protected -carboxy anhydrides of --l-histidine and --butyl-l-cysteine, using an end-amine-functionalized poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-NH) as macroinitiator, followed by the deprotection of the polypeptidic blocks. The topology of PCys was either the middle block, the end block or was randomly distributed along the PHis chain.

Synthesis and Characterization of the Novel -9-Fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl-l-Lysine -Carboxy Anhydride. Synthesis of Well-Defined Linear and Branched Polypeptides.

The synthesis of well-defined polypeptides exhibiting complex macromolecular architectures requires the use of monomers that can be orthogonally deprotected, containing primary amines that will be used as the initiator for the Ring Opening Polymerization (ROP) of N-carboxy anhydrides. The synthesis and characterization of the novel monomer -9-Fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl-l-Lysine -carboxy anhydride (-Fmoc-l-Lysine NCA), as well as the novel linear Poly(-Fmoc-l-Lys) homopolypeptide and Poly(l-Lysine)--[Poly(l-Lysine)-t-Poly(l-Histidine)] block-graft copolypeptide, are presented. The synthesis of the graft copolypeptide was conducted via ROP of the -Boc-l-Lysine NCA while using -hexylamine as the initiator, followed by the polymerization of -Fmoc-l-Lysine NCA.

Nanostructured Polymeric, Liposomal and Other Materials to Control the Drug Delivery for Cardiovascular Diseases.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally, taking an estimated 17.9 million lives each year, representing one third of global mortality. As existing therapies still have limited success, due to the inability to control the biodistribution of the currently approved drugs, the quality of life of these patients is modest.

Drug Delivery Through Multifunctional Polypeptidic Hydrogels.

Over the last two decades, remarkable progress has been made to the discovery of novel drugs as well as their delivery systems for the treatment of cancer, the major challenge in medicine. Pharmaceutical scientists are trying to shift from traditional to novel drug delivery systems by applying nanotechnology and, in particular, polymeric carriers to medicine. In complex diseases, very sophisticated nanocarriers should be designed to encapsulate a significant quantity of drugs and bypass biological barriers with minimum cargo loss to effectively and directly deliver the encapsulated drug to the desired pathological site.

Synthesis of Hybrid-Polypeptides m-PEO-b-poly(His-co-Gly) and m-PEO-b-poly(His-co-Ala) and Study of Their Structure and Aggregation. Influence of Hydrophobic Copolypeptides on the Properties of Poly(L-histidine).

The highly diverse and sophisticated action of proteins results from their equally diverse primary structure, which along with the nature of interactions between the amino acids, defines the higher self-assembly of proteins. The interactions between amino acids can be very complicated, and their understanding is necessary in order to elucidate the protein structure-properties relationship. A series of well-defined hybrid-polypeptidic diblock copolymers of the type m-PEO-b-poly(His-co-Gly) and m-PEO-b-poly(His-co-Ala) was synthesized through the ring opening polymerization of the -carboxyanhydrides of the corresponding amino acids, with a molar ratio of the hydrophobic peptide to histidine at 10%, 20% and 40%.