Synthetic and biological macromolecules

Ross-Murphy, SB, Physical Gelation of Synthetic and Biological Macromolecules. In Polymer Gels, Fundamentals and Biomedical Applications DeRossi, D Kajiwara, K Osada, Y Yamauchi, A, eds. Plenum Press New York, 1991 21. 

It is beyond the scope of this book to go into further details of comparing structural organization in synthetic and biological macromolecules. We cannot resist noting however, that one may consider as the ultimate goal of polymer materials chemistry to synthesize exact and accurate structures of the appropriate monomers in well-defined systems to achieve required functions. Differences in properties and function between man-made polymer parts and biomaterials made up of natural biomacromolecules may well be related to differences in their primary structure and architectural control. Proteins and nucleic acids are precisely defined in their... 

Adsorption and Desorption of Synthetic and Biological Macromolecules at Solid-Liquid Interfaces Equilibrium and Kinetic Properties... 

Perera, A., B. Kezic, F. Sokolic, and L. Zoranid. 2012. Micro-heterogeneity in complex liquids. In Molecular Dynamics—Studies of Synthetic and Biological Macromolecules, edited by L. Wang. Rijeka, Croatia InTech. 

Ross-Murphy S. B (1991) Physical gelation of Synthetic and biological macromolecules, 23-25. In De Rossi D et al (eds) Polymer gels. Plenum, New York... 

In view of the potential importance of the polymer nueleie aeid eomplexes in gene therapies and in the advantages that responsive polymers offer in this area, considered in depth here are the mechanisms by which the synthetic and biological macromolecules interact and how they must function in order to deliver and express a therapeutic transgene. 

More recently the translational diffusion constants for other synthetic and biological macromolecules have been obtained (46 5I). 

Hybrid hydrogels are usually referred to as hydrogel systems whose components are at least two distinct classes of molecules, for example, synthetic polymers and biological macromolecules, interconnected either covalently or noncovalently. They have been of particular interest because... 

The translation and transcription of DNA information is polymer synthesis and behavior, and the particular governing factors and features that control these reactions— synthetic and biological—are present in the synthesis and behavior of other macromolecules. 

J. Janca, Microthermal Field-Flow Fractionation Analysis of Synthetic, Natural, and Biological Macromolecules and Particles, HNB Publishing, New York, 2008. 

There are many natural and biological macromolecules that possess anticancer activity. Cytokines, topoisomerase inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies, thymic hormones, cell growth inhibitors, and enzymes have been used [68], They have been recently reviewed [59,69] and their detailed description is beyond the scope of this article. The main problems connected with the administration of such natural macromolecules is their short intravascular half-life, immunogenicity, and sometimes poor solubility. Their modification with synthetic macromolecules can dramatically increase their therapeutic potential as described below. 

D Esposito, Koenig, J. L. Application of Fourier Transform Infrared to Synthetic Polymers and Biological Macromolecules, in Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy,Ferraro, J. R., Basile, L. J. (Eds.) Academic Press, Vol. 1, chapter 2, 1978... 

Cooper, A. R. Column Fractionation of Macromolecules by Gradient Elution , in Epton, R. (ed) Chromatography of Synthetic and Biological Polymers , Vol. 1, Ellis Horwood Ltd. Publ., Chichester, U.K. 1978... 

The electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged molecules is an adjustable driving force for structured material construction. The current synthetic routes of polymer production often offer many variations in size, topology, functionality and polydispersity. An electrostatically driven assembly of nanostructures allows for the controlled incorporation of materials available by synthetic routes. Biological macromolecules, nevertheless, offer superior polyfunctionality compared to synthetic macromolecules. We preferentially use them. 

This phenomenon has been utilised to measure the time course of the interactions of just about any charged molecules such as ions e.g. Ca " ", peptides, and proteins that may interact with either synthetic and biological membranes with great sensitivity in real time. An example of this is shown in Fig. 3b. It has also proved possible to monitor the early events during the interactions of macromolecules with artificial membrane systems (25) and with living cells (12) to obtain thermodynamic information of the intermolecular interactions (13). 

Synthetic methods that are borrowing the tools of biology are being actively developed for the synthesis of nonbiological and biological macromolecules. Enzymatic polymerization is one of the most recent entries to this field and is reviewed by Kobayashi, Uyama, and Kimura. 

Synthetic polymers and biological macromolecules are often modeled as a cluster of spheres or as a string of rods and spherical beads. The rod-and-bead configuration may be rigid, as a dumbell, or flexible, where a bead connects to two rods as in a ball-and-socket joint or jointed chain. The protein fibrinogen has the character of a linear, rod-and-bead configuration with two rods and three beads. Most synthetic polymers and many biological macromolecules are flexible because of rotations about the chemical bonds. 

We have tried to present a unified picture of results obtained on the adsorptlon/desorptlon phenomena of both synthetic and biological polymers. It appears that proteins like albumin or fibrinogen do adsorb on many surfaces with little structural alterations at the global molecular level, while the structure of flexible polymers Is radically altered once the molecule Is trapped In the Interfaclal force field. Conversely, the slow turnover existing between surface and solution macromolecules was shown to be total with polyacrylamide, while only partial with proteins, especially with fibrinogen. Thus, flexibility and reversibility au e preserved In the adsorbed state, for synthetic polymers, even If the time-scale of the mole-culau dynamics Is considerably different from that In solution. For adsorbed proteins, however, the existence of a population of nonexchangeable molecules remains to be fully explained. 

Many polymeric materials used in biomedical research are biohybrids, meaning a combination of synthetic polymers and biological macromolecules. In addition, the interaction of a biomacromolecule like a peptide and any synthetic polymer is of high interest for potential application, for example, if there are conformational changes or denaturation of the proteins in contact with a polymeric surface and, thus, specific characterization tools not only for the synthetic polymers are of need but also for biomacromolecules. Therefore, in the following, specific techniques are described for the characterization of polypeptides as an example for a typical biological macromolecule. 

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