Polybrene-poly

Meisel etal. [18-20] were the first to investigate how the addition of a polyelectrolyte affects photoinduced ET reactions. They found that charge separation was enhanced as a result of the retardation of the back ET when poly(vinyl sulfate) was added to an aqueous reaction system consisting of tris(2,2 -bipyridine)ruthenium(II) chloride (cationic photoactive chromophore) and neutral electron acceptors [21]. More recently, Sassoon and Rabani [22] observed that the addition of polybrene (a polycation) had a significant effect on separating the photoinduced ET products in an aqueous solution containing cir-dicyano-bis(2,2 -bipyridine)ruthenium(II) (photoactive donor) and potassium hexacyano-ferrate(III) (acceptor). These findings are ascribable to the electrostatic potential of the added polyelectrolytes. 

Researchers, primarily from Moscow State University, Russia, have also formed noncovalent aggregates between enzymes and polymers [palmitoylated poly (sucrose acrylate)], polyelectrolytes (polybrene), and block copolymers. Reported enzymatic activities were high. For the former, activity decreased as the molecular weight and degree of palmitoylation increased. Chymotrypsin-polyelectrolyte and -block copolymer complexes were active in aqueous-polar organic co-solvent mixtures when the ionic strength was increased. " ... 

The mixing of solutions containing stoichiometric amounts of polyanions and polycations, which can be described in the equation [Cp s] otpos= [Cpeg] otneg, generally leads to the precipitation of both species. This is due to the fact that the polar groups screen each other and the overall solubility is lost. Only at very low concentrations a few cases of soluble complexes with stoichiometric amounts of polyanions and polycations have been demonstrated, for example, in the case of poly(styrenesulfonate) and Polybrene (1,5-dimethyl-1,5-diazaundecamethylene polymethobromide hexadimethrine bromide). ... 

Greenwalt, T. J., and Steane, E. A., 1973c, Quantitative haemagglutination. 6. Relationship of sialic acid content of red cells and aggregation by polybrene, protamine and poly-L-lysine, Br. 7. Haematol. 25 227. 

---