In situ formation of protein-polymer conjugates through reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/anie.200604922

(Figure Presented) A good place for rafting: Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was site-specifically modified with a reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) agent and used in γ-radiation-initiated polymerization of oligo(ethylene glycol) acrylate. Well-defined polymer chains were formed at the RAFT agent conjugation site of BSA leading to the generation of BSA-polymer conjugates in situ.

Full text of DOI:10.1002/anie.200604922

Angewandte
Chemie
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200604922
Polymer–Protein Conjugates
In Situ Formation of Protein–Polymer Conjugates through Reversible
Addition Fragmentation Chain Transfer Polymerization**
Jingquan Liu, Volga Bulmus,* David L. Herlambang, Christopher Barner-Kowollik,
Martina H. Stenzel, and Thomas P. Davis*
Polymer–biomolecule conjugates have attracted increasing
interest as a result of their widespread utility in various
applications of medicine, biotechnology, and nanotechnol-
RAFT technique in the in situ preparation of polymer–
biomacromolecule conjugates has not yet been reported.
Herein, we demonstrate the first, RAFT-mediated in situ
preparation of polymer–protein conjugates. Adapting the
approach used by Maynard and co-workers for preparing a
site-specifically modified BSA–ATRP initiator (BSA =
[
1–3]
ogy.
rization conjugation of functionalized polymer chains to
Generally, they have been prepared by postpolyme-
[
4–6]
biomolecules through covalent and bioaffinity bindings.
[
7,8]
Such postpolymerization conjugation approaches have often
involved multiple steps including synthesis, chemical modifi-
cation, purification, and conjugation. A novel strategy
eliminating these multistep procedures has been recently
bovine serum albumin),
a new selectively thiol-reactive
RAFT agent was synthesized and site-specifically conjugated
to BSA through the only free thiol group present on BSA,
that is, the cysteine 34 residue. The new RAFT agent, which
consists of a trithiocarbonate with a pyridyl disulfide modified
Z group and a benzyl R group, is reactive towards the
selective exchange reaction with free thiol-tethered molecules
[
7–9]
introduced.
The well-defined polymer–protein conjugates
could be prepared in one step by using modified proteins as
initiating sites for atom-transfer radical polymerization
[
22]
(
ATRP). In situ preparation of polymer–protein conjugates
under mild conditions. Its reaction with one free thiol group
bearing BSA forms a disulfide-linked BSA–RAFT agent
conjugate (BSA–macroRAFT agent; Scheme 1). Based on
through an ATRP technique has been shown to be advanta-
geous not only for decreasing the number of synthetic steps
but also offers the potential of controlling the site and the
number of polymer chains conjugated to proteins.
Reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT)
polymerization has proven to be one of the most versatile
[
10–12]
controlled/living polymerization techniques.
The versa-
tility of the RAFT technique to control the polymerization of
a wide variety of monomers without using metal catalysts
makes it potentially more advantageous than the ATRP
technique. RAFT-mediated polymerizations can be per-
formed at room temperature as well as at elevated temper-
[
13–15]
atures in aqueous and organic media.
In a number of
publications, the technique has proven to be useful for the
preparation of polymer conjugated systems by in situ poly-
merization of monomers from the RAFT-agent-anchored
[
16–21]
substrates.
However, to our knowledge, the utility of the
Scheme 1. Site-specific modification of BSA with a pyridyl disulfide
terminated RAFT agent and the polymerization in situ of oligo(ethylene
glycol) acrylate (PEG-A). DMF=N,N-dimethylformamide.
[
*] Dr. J. Liu, Dr. V. Bulmus, D. L. Herlambang, Prof. C. Barner-Kowollik,
Dr. M. H. Stenzel, Prof. T. P. Davis
Centre for Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD)
School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering
The University of New South Wales
Sydney NSW 2052 (Australia)
the mechanism of the RAFT polymerization, most of the
polymer chains that form during RAFT-mediated polymeri-
zation retain a Z-group-attached thiocarbonylthio fragment
[
10–12]
of the RAFT agent as an end group.
Therefore, it is
reasonable to link BSA at the Z group of a RAFT agent for
the RAFT-mediated formation in situ of well-defined BSA–
polymer conjugates. The conjugation of a pyridyl disulfide
modified RAFT agent to BSA was monitored by using a UV/
Vis spectrophotometer, measuring the release of the by-
product, 2-pyridinethione, formed during the conjugation
reaction (Figure 1). The absorption peak of the conjugation
reaction mixture that appeared at approximately 360 nm in
the characteristic wavelength range of 2-pyridinethione
Fax: (+61)2-9385-4749
E-mail: vbulmus@unsw.edu.au
t.davis@unsw.edu.au
[
**] V.B. and T.P.D. acknowledge the UNSW Vice Chancellor’s Post-
doctoral Research Fellowship and the Federation Fellowship Award
of the Australian Research Council, respectively. The authors thank
the Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility at UNSW for MALDI
analysis, and Dr. L. Barner, Dr. T. Lovestead, and I. Jayencik for their
6
0
help on the use of the Co source.
(
approximately 340 nm in aqueous solution and 370 nm in
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
under http://www.angewandte.org or from the author.
[
22,23]
DMF)
indicated that the conjugation reaction occurred
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ꢀ 2007 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
3099

Communications
potential effect of g radiation on protein structure, BSA was
incubated in the polymerization solution (the monomer and
the RAFT agent with no functional group to attach to BSA
under the conditions studied) under g radiation at
a
À1
1
8.6 Gyh dose rate for 15 h. The nondenaturing polyacryl-
amide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and MALDI-MS analysis
of BSA control samples showed no detectable intermolecular
cross-linking reactions or fragmentation caused by the
g radiation at the utilized dose rate (see Figure S2B in the
Supporting Information). Furthermore, enzymatic activity of
BSA and a relatively more fragile protein, glucose oxidase,
after incubation in the polymerization mixture under g irra-
diation for 6 h was found to be 92 and 88% of the original
activity, respectively (see Figure S3 and S4 in the Supporting
Information). As any small alteration in the secondary or
tertiary structure of a protein would lead to gross distortions
in biological activity, retention of approximately 90% of the
original activity rules out the possibility of any major
detrimental effect, such as intramolecular interactions, as a
result of the g radiation conditions used in the experiments on
the protein structure.
The polymerization of PEG-A was first performed in the
presence of both the BSA–macroRAFT agent and the free,
pyridyl disulfide modified RAFT agent. The gel-permeation
chromatography (GPC) traces of the BSA–macroRAFT
agent shifted clearly to higher molecular weight values with
increasing polymerization times, indicating the RAFT-medi-
ated in situ formation of BSA–poly(PEG-A) conjugates
(Figure 2 A). The shoulders on the GPC traces with molec-
ular weights lower than the molecular weight of the BSA–
macroRAFTagent indicated the formation of free poly(PEG-
A) chains owing to the presence of the free RAFTagent in the
polymerization mixture. These free polymer chains that were
obviously smaller than the hydrodynamic volume of the
BSA–macroRAFT agent could be easily removed by dialysis
with a membrane that has a molecular-weight cut off of
50000 Da. The low-molecular-weight tails on the GPC
chromatograms of the polymerization mixtures completely
disappeared after dialysis (Figure 2B), indicating the removal
of the polymer chains formed by the free RAFT-agent-
mediated polymerization. The increase in the molecular
weight of the BSA–polymer conjugates with increasing
polymerization times was clearly observed in the GPC
chromatograms. The monomer conversion was found to
increase with increasing polymerization time (Figure 2C
inset). The molecular weight of the BSA–polymer conjugates
determined by MALDI-MS analysis of the dialyzed BSA–
polymer conjugates was found to increase linearly with
increasing monomer conversions up to approximately 60%.
Above 60%, the increase in the molecular weight was much
less, which might be due to the effect of increased steric
Figure 1. UV/Vis absorption spectra for the reaction of BSA with a
modified RAFT agent terminated with a pyridyl disulfide group. The
characteristic UV absorption peaks for the initial solutions (after
dilution) of BSA and the RAFT agent are also given for comparison
(
* BSA; ? RAFT agent; * after re action).
through the exchange reaction between the pyridyl disulfide
group of the RAFT agent and the free thiol group of BSA.
Neither BSA nor the pyridyl disulfide modified RAFT agent
absorbs light above 350 nm (Figure 1). The quantification of
the conjugation reaction, performed by a colorimetric assay,
[
23]
that is, Ellmanꢀs assay, showed that around 44 mol% of
BSA could be conjugated with the RAFT agent. It has been
previously reported that approximately 50% of cysteine 34
residues from native BSA are present in an oxidized state and
therefore only approximately 50 mol% of native BSA is
expected to be reactive towards the conjugation with the
[
7]
pyridyl disulfide modified RAFT agent. MALDI-MS anal-
ysis of the BSA–RAFT agent conjugate and BSA revealed
peaks at masses of 66768 and 66435 amu, respectively (see
Figure S1 in the Supporting Information), indicating conju-
gation of the RAFT agent to the protein. The data obtained
with the three different techniques given above confirmed
that the BSA–macroRAFT agent was generated successfully.
A water-soluble monomer, oligo(ethylene glycol) acrylate
À1
(
PEG-A, average molecular weight of 454 gmol ) was
polymerized under g radiation at room temperature in the
presence of the BSA–macroRAFT agent. g Radiation has
been employed previously to initiate RAFT-mediated poly-
[
24–27]
merizations.
It was reported that there is no difference in
the mechanism of the RAFT process between g ray and
thermally initiated polymerizations. The advantage of using
g radiation to initiate a polymerization reaction is that the
polymerizations can be performed at room temperature in a
variety of solvents including water. However, it has been
reported that g radiation might cause structural damage on
[
28]
biological molecules. A major radiolysis reaction of pep-
tides and proteins in oxygen-free aqueous solutions is
intermolecular cross-linking, which leads to the formation of
hindrance of growing polymer chains on the accessibility of
[
28]
[25,31,32]
protein aggregates. However, studies have shown that the
effect of g radiation on the structure of proteins is radiation-
dose-dependent and can be eliminated completely at a
the RAFT groups.
The nondenaturing PAGE of the
dialyzed polymerization mixtures showed clearly the forma-
tion of the polymer conjugates with molecular weights higher
than the molecular weight of BSA (Figure 2D).
[
29,30]
relatively lower radiation flux.
We conducted our g ray
initiated polymerization experiments in oxygen-free aqueous
Cleavage of the conjugated polymer from BSA was
attempted by reducing the disulfide bond linking the polymer
to the protein. However, reducing conditions (1 mm tris(car-
solutions by using a relatively low g dose rate, that is,
À1
60
1
8.6 Gyh via a Co g source. Nevertheless, to rule out the
3
100
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Angewandte
Chemie
boxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP) for 2 h), which were mild
enough not to disturb the structural integrity of BSA, were
found not to cleave the polymer chains from the BSA–higher-
molecular-weight conjugates (above 80000 Da). Under the
same reducing conditions, partial cleavage of the polymer
chains from BSA was observed only with the low-molecular-
weight conjugate (data not shown). This observation might be
explained by the partial or total embedding of the disulfide
bond that links the polymer chain to the protein, which
decreases the accessibility of the bond by the reducing agent.
A slight increase in the polymeric chain length might cause a
more profound shielding effect on the protein owing to the
repeating side oligo(ethylene glycol) units, therefore the
cleavage of the disulfide bond linking the polymer to the
protein might be more difficult in the case of higher-
molecular-weight polymer conjugates. When stronger reduc-
ing conditions (100 mm TCEP, 24 h) were utilized, BSA was
completely reduced into peptide fragments with molecular
weights of less than 10000 Da, revealing the free polymer
chains. The GPC analysis of these samples in which BSA was
completely cleaved allowed the molecular weight and the
molecular-weight distribution of the polymer chains, which
were generated from the conjugate of BSA, to be determined
(Figure 3A and B). The linear evolution of the molecular
weight of the polymers with increasing monomer conversions
up to approximately 70% evidenced further the occurrence of
Figure 2. GPC chromatograms of the polymerization mixtures stopped
at varying polymerization times, that is, a) before and B) after dialysis
(c 15 h; b 6 h; –··– 4 h; d 2 h; a BSA–macroRAFT agent;
g BSA. M=molarmass ave ra ge of polyethylene oxide and polyeth-
ylene glycol standards; RID=refractive index detector. C) Molecular
weight (MW) of the dialyzed polymerization mixtures versus the
monomer conversion (MW data obtained from mass spectrometry
analysis). Inset: Monomer conversion versus polymerization time.
D) Nondenaturing PAGE of the dialyzed polymerization mixtures:
Lane 1=molecular weight markers, lane 2=BSA–macroRAFT agent,
lanes 3–6=dialyzed polymerization mixtures with increasing monomer
conversions, respectively.
Figure 3. BSA–polymerconjugates afterthe complete cleavage of BSA
with TCEP (100 mm) for24 h. A) GPC ch ro matog ra ms ( * 2 h; * 4 h;
^ 6 h; ^ 15 h) and B) the evolution of the number-average molecular
weight (^) and the molecularweight dist ri bution (PDI; ^) with
1
monomer conversion, as determined by GPC and H NMR spectrosco-
py. The samples contain the free polymer chains cleaved from BSA and
also the small-molecular-weight oligopeptide products formed upon
the complete cleavage of BSA.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 3099 –3103
ꢀ 2007 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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3101

Communications
the RAFT-mediated polymerization in situ. The large poly-
mainly associated with the existence of the free BSA that
was not conjugated with a RAFTagent and also the formation
of free polymer chains during polymerization. The extent of
the formation of the free polymers with a molecular weight
lower than the molecular weight of BSA was less significant
compared with the formation of the low-molecular-weight
free polymer in the polymerizations performed in the
presence of the free RAFT agent. The inhibition period of
two hours observed in the polymerization might be associated
with the slow fragmentation of the intermediate BSA–
macroRAFT agent (Figure 4b, inset). The linear evolution
of the molecular weight with increasing monomer conversion
revealed that the in situ formation of the protein conjugates
was controlled by the RAFT mechanism. The PDI values that
do not exactly reflect the true molecular-weight distribution
of the polymeric chains grafted to BSA might be associated
with the reduced accessibility of the RAFT end groups owing
dispersity index (PDI) values of the samples might be due to
the hindrance of the RAFT end groups by the growing
[
25,31,32]
polymer chain on the protein.
Furthermore, the pres-
ence of low-molecular-weight peptide fragments formed by
the cleavage of BSA might have also caused the lower-
molecular-weight tails on GPC traces and hence increased the
PDI values.
A control experiment performed with a mixture of BSA,
RAFT agent without a pyridyl disulfide group, and PEG-A
monomer incubated under g irradiation for 15 h, indicated
the formation of a physical mixture of the free BSA and the
free polymer, but not the polymer–BSA conjugate (see
Figure S2 in the Supporting Information). This control
experiment further evidenced that the in situ polymerization
could take place at the site of the RAFT agent conjugated
with BSA.
We further checked whether the polymerization in situ of
PEG-A could be controlled by the BSA–macroRAFT agent
in the absence of the free RAFT agent. The major peak
observed on the GPC chromatograms of the polymerization
mixtures indicated the formation of macromolecules with
hydrodynamic volumes larger than that of BSA (Figure 4A).
The peaks were found to be shifted to higher molecular
weights with increasing polymerization times. The low-
molecular-weight tail on the chromatograms might be
[
25,31,32]
to the steric hindrance by the polymer chains.
In conclusion, the first, RAFT-mediated in situ prepara-
tion of protein–polymer conjugates was presented. A new
biohybrid RAFT agent, that is, the BSA–macroRAFT agent
was prepared and used to control the g ray initiated polymer-
ization of a water-soluble monomer at room temperature. The
in situ formation of the polymer chains was found to take
place at the site of the RAFTagent conjugated to BSA and in
the solution when the free RAFT agent was used in
conjunction with the BSA–macroRAFT agent. The polymer-
ization performed without the free RAFT agent yielded the
formation of BSA–polymer conjugates along with the rela-
tively less significant free-polymer generation. The linear
evolution of molecular weights with monomer conversions
indicated that the in situ polymerizations were controlled by
the RAFT mechanism. Our future efforts will be focused on
the exploitation of the RAFT technique on in situ preparation
of functional polymer–biomolecule conjugates.
Experimental Section
The synthesis of the pyridyl disulfide terminated RAFT agent was
[
22]
given elsewhere. All other experiments conducted in the study are
described in the Supporting Information.
Received: December 6, 2006
Published online: March 20, 2007
Keywords: polymerconjugates · polyme ri zation ·
.
protein conjugates · radiation
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