Design and synthesis of well-defined glycopolymers for the control of biological functionalities

This review addresses the design and synthesis of synthetic glycopolymers. Glycopolymers with pendant saccharides exhibit high affinities for proteins owing to their multivalency. Glycopolymers have molecular recognition abilities and amphiphilicity and can be applied as biomaterials and in bioassays. Most synthetic glycopolymers are prepared from polymerizable saccharide derivatives, and the rest are prepared by saccharide addition to a polymer backbone. Because sugar-recognizing proteins have precise structures, the living polymerization of glycopolymers is important in the fabrication of well-defined multiple ligands of saccharides. Glycopolymers with narrow polydispersity are useful for determining the interactions between saccharides and proteins. The living polymerization of glycopolymers provides hybrid materials by the terminal modification of the polymers. The glycopolymers of block polymers, star polymers and polymer brushes have been investigated for use in novel biomaterials. Polymer Journal (2012) 44, 679–689; doi:10.1038/pj.2012.4; published online 14 March 2012