Dottorato in MATERIALS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Glycopolymers belong to a special class of synthetic polymers bearing pendant sugar units that are receiving considerable attention among the scientific community, because of their interesting properties and applications in the living system. The multivalent interaction between the sugar units and carbohydrate receptors (lectins) plays the key role in its biological activity. Therefore, it is crucial to manipulate the sugar density, length, and architecture of the glycopolymer to control the binding rates with lectins. Currently, the major application of glycopolymers is in the field of pathogen inhibition and cancer therapy due to their excellent bio-recognition properties. Herein, we investigated the lectin binding efficiency of an octa-arm star glycopolymer as a function of its chain length. It was observed that the binding constant value increases with the increase in glycopolymer chain length. In another study, gelatin quantum dot-tagged fluorescence active redox-responsive glycopolymer nanogel was developed via reversible addition−fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerisation. An anticancer drug, Doxorubicin (Dox), was loaded in the nanogel and its efficacy was studied over MDA MB 231, a human breast cancer cell line. The efficacy of synergistic chemo-photodynamic therapy was studied in a subsequent investigation to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of the system. A gold nanoparticle (NPs) embedded pH-responsive glycopolymer was synthesized via RAFT polymerisation and was attached with Dox as well as with a photosensitizer. The system demonstrated a synergistic effect of chemo-photodynamic therapy when exposed to 630 nm LED light. This talk will delineate the design of tailor-made glycopolymers with well-defined architecture via RAFT polymerisation technique and their applications in the study of glycopolymer-lectin interaction, bioimaging, drug delivery and phototherapy for cancer treatment.

15/06/2026