P. Ferruti, N. Mauro, L. Falciola
Mar 1, 2014
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0
Influential Citations
36
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Quality indicators
Journal
Macromolecular bioscience
Abstract
A linear amphoteric poly(amidoamino acid), L-ARGO7, is prepared by Michael-type polyaddition of L-arginine with N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide. Chain-extension of acrylamide end-capped L-ARGO7 oligomers with piperazine leads to high-molecular-weight copolymers in which L-arginine maintains its absolute configuration. Acid/base properties of L-ARGO7 polymers show isolectric points of ≈ 10 and positive net average charges per repeating unit at pH = 7.4 from 0.25 to 0.40. These arginine-rich synthetic polymers possibly share some of the unique biological properties of polyarginine cell-permeating peptides. In vitro tests with mouse embryo fibroblasts balb/3T3 clone A31 show that L-ARGO7 polymers are endowed with effective cell internalization ability combined with minimal cytotoxicity.