Glycopolymers for drug delivery

Abstract

This thesis used RAFT polymerisation to generate glycopolymers capable of binding therapeutic agents through hydrogen bonding or direct complexation to the sugar units. Firstly, block copolymers comprising of a nucleoside and a glucosamine-based block were synthesized in a controlled fashion, and structures formed by self-assembly of the resulting block copolymers found to vary according to the polynucleoside block length. The ability of the polynucleoside block to interact with adenosine was promising for the use of these particles in encapsulating small molecules through hydrogen bonding. Secondly, glycopolymers were synthesized in which the glycopolymer played a new role compared to traditional glycopolymer applications. New thiosugar monomers were developed which were polymerized by RAFT in a controlled manner to generate glycopolymers capable of complexing Au(I). The polymeric analogues of potent gold(I) chemotherapeutics showed promising anti-cancer activity against ovarian cancer cells.