Methacrylamide backbone

By means of a ring-opening polymerization of the condensation type Vlasov et al. [50] synthesized polypeptide based MAIs with azo groups in the polymeric backbone. The method is based on the reaction of a hydracide derivative of AIBN and a N-carboxy anhydride. Containing one central azo group in the polymer main chain, the polymeric azo initiator was used for initiating block copolymerizations of styrene and various methacrylamides. 

One of the most successful conjugate polymer systems was developed by Duncan and Kopecek (25). The polymer carrier used in their system is poly [N(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide] a biocompatible polymer that was originally developed as a plasma extender. They have evaluated a number of polymer conjugated drugs for cancer chemotherapy with interesting results. The attachment of the drug is through a peptidyl spacer pendent to the polymer backbone. These peptides links are stable in aqueous media but are readily hydrolyzed intracellularly... 

Dimcan, et al. " have investigated a number of copolymers having a backbone based on iV-(2-hydroxpropyl)methacrylamide (HPMA, 37). Briefly, sidechains containing various amino acid (peptidyl) spacers are introduced onto the HPMA polymer. These peptidyl sidechains include Gly-Gly and Gly-Phe-Leu-Gly that contain carboxylate or amino end-groups that are reacted with cisplatin. 

---