Biomedical Applications of Polycations

There are several biomedical applications of polycations stemming from the property of this class of polyelectrolyte to bind to surfaces with negative electrostatic charge. A theoretical understanding of the biological interactions of acidic and basic polyelectrolytes and effects on enzymatic processes in cells has been provided by A. Katchalsky [1],... 

Moroson, H., Rotman, M. Biomedical applications of polycations, in Polyelectrolytes and their Applications (eds.) Rembaum, A., Selegny, E., p. 187, Dordrecht-HoUand Boston USA, D. Riedd Publ. Comp. 1975... 

The most interesting situation is that where the complex formation occurs between two block copolymers A-B and A-C, respectively C-D, with specific interactions between the blocks B and C (see Figure 7.8, scheme (c)), such PIC, also called block ionomer complexes (BIC) have been studied quite extensively in aqueous medium by Harada and Kataoka [270] and by Kabanov and Alakhov [271] due to their practical interest in controlled delivery systems. Kataoka and co-workers have for instance shown that water-soluble PlCs for biomedical applications are formed by combination of PEO-poly(L-lysine) and PEO-poly (a, /3-aspartic acid). These authors have further demonstrated that the PIC micelles prepared under charge-neutralized conditions have an extremely narrow size distribution if matched pairs of copolymers with the same block lengths of polyanions and polycations are combined [272]. 

---