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Updated: Jun 4, 2025

Polymalic Acid-based Nano Biopolymers for Targeting of Multiple Tumor Markers: An Opportunity for Personalized Medicine?
Published on: June 13, 2014
Synthesis of Polymers via Cancer Cell Metabolism-Mediated Controlled Radical Polymerization and Application in
Xianfeng Chu1, Xiaowen Dou2, Jiaying Yu1
1School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu Province Hi-Tech Key Laboratory for Biomedical Research, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 211189, P. R. China.
Abstract:
In this study, we present a novel chemical biology strategy that leverages the reductive metabolic pathways of cancer cells to develop a new approach for synthesizing polymers in nonstrictly anaerobic conditions. This method utilizes the reductive metabolism of cancer cells to reduce Cu(II) to Cu(I), enabling Cu(I)-catalyzed controlled radical polymerization with poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (MAPEGOMe) monomer, producing polymers with low dispersity (1.28-1.38). Furthermore, we found that this method could use MAPEGOMe as a monomer to in situ form a polymer layer on the initiator-modified cell surface, achieving a cell surface engineering modification. This study reveals the broad application value and potential of cancer cell metabolism-mediated controlled radical polymerization in the fields of chemical biology and polymer science.
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