Polylactide (PLA)-based amphiphilic block copolymers: synthesis, self-assembly, and biomedical applications

Abstract

Polylactide (PLA) and its copolymers are one type of hydrophobic aliphatic polyester based on hydroxyalkanoic acids. They possess exceptional qualities: biocompatibility; FDA approval for clinical use; biodegradability by enzyme and hydrolysis under physiological conditions; low immunogenicity; and good mechanical properties. These critical properties have facilitated their value as sutures, implants for bone fixation, drug delivery vehicles, and tissue engineering scaffolds in pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. However, the hydrophobicity of PLA and its copolymers remains concerns for further biological and biomedical applications. One promising approach is to design and synthesize well-controlled PLA-based amphiphilic block copolymers (ABPs); typical hydrophilic copolymers include poly(meth)acrylates, poly(ethylene glycol), polypeptides, polysaccharides, and polyurethanes. This review summarizes recent advances in the synthesis and self-assembly of PLA-containing ABPs and their bio-related applications including drug delivery and imaging platforms of self-assembled nanoparticles, and tissue engineering of crosslinked hydrogels.

Hybrid Block Copolymers Constituted by Peptides and Synthetic Polymers: An Overview of Synthetic Approaches, Supramolecular Behavior and Potential Applications

“…Thus, multiple works involved methodologies so as to evaluate the cytotoxicity of the obtained synthetic copolymers in order to be sure that they can be used for biomedical applications. A recent review reported by Oh [90], was precisely focused in the recent advances concerning the synthesis and self-assembly of PLA-containing amphiphilic block copolymers (e.g., including poly(meth)acrylates, poly(ethylene glycol), polypeptides, polysaccharides, and polyurethanes) and their bio-related applications (i.e., drug delivery and imaging platforms of self-assembled nanoparticles, and tissue engineering of crosslinked hydrogels). These kind of hybrid materials appeared as a promising approach to solve the problems associated to the inherent hydrophobicity of polylactide.…”

Polylactic Acid Antimicrobial Composite Films: Preparation and Antibacterial Efficacy

“…In addition, poly[2-(tert-butylaminoethyl)methacrylate](TBMA) is a newly invented antimicrobial polymer [10] that is hydrophobic. TBMA is produced via an atom-transfer radical-polymerization (ATRP) [11,12]. Therefore, its structure has NH + positive charges that adsorb the negative charges of bacteria, and thereby jeopardizing the cell walls of the bacteria and eventually having the bactericidal efficacy.…”

Advances in drug delivery systems based on synthetic poly(hydroxybutyrate) (co)polymers

“…In particular, the ubiquitous poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and poly(glycolic acid), and their copolymers poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), have been extensively investigated in combination with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) [24,25]. The resulting amphiphilic block copolymers such as PLA-b-PEG and PLGA-b-PEG, selfassembled into nanoparticles, micelles or polymersomes featuring a hydrophobic PLA or PLGA core and an outer hydrophilic PEG corona [26][27][28][29][30][31]. Polyester-systems prepared from poly(-caprolactone) [32][33][34] or poly(hydroxyalkanoate)s (PHAs; vide infra), often associated with PEG, similarly form nano-sized objects.…”