Refining the Design of Diblock Elastin-Like Polypeptides for Self-Assembly into Nanoparticles

Michèle Dai (1, 2, 3) , Evangelos Georgilis (2, 3, 4) , Guillaume Goudounet (2, 3) , Bertrand Garbay (2, 3) , Jan Pille (5) , Jan C. M. van Hest (5, 6) , Xavier Schultze (1) , Elisabeth Garanger (2, 3) , Sébastien Lecommandoux (2, 3)

1 L'Oréal Recherche - L'Oréal Recherche France
2 Team 3 LCPO : Polymer Self-Assembly & Life Sciences
3 LCPO - Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques
4 CIC NanoGUNE
5 TU/e - Eindhoven University of Technology [Eindhoven]
6 Biophysics - Department of Medical Physics and Biophysics

Diblock copolymers based-on elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) have the potential to undergo specific phase transitions when thermally stimulated. This ability is especially suitable to form carriers, micellar structures for instance, for delivering active cargo molecules. Here, we report the design and study of an ELP diblock library based on ELP-[M1V3-i]-[I-j]. First, ELP-[M1V3-i]-[I-j] (i = 20, 40, 60; j = 20, 90) that showed a similar self-assembly propensity (unimer-to-aggregate transition) as their related monoblocks ELP-[M1V3-i] and ELP-[I-j]. By selectively oxidizing methionines of ELP-[M1V3-i] within the different diblocks structures, we have been able to access a thermal phase transition with three distinct regimes (unimers, micelles, aggregates) characteristic of well-defined ELP diblocks.

Mots clés: elastin-like polypeptides; thermoresponsiveness; self-assembly; nanoparticles; methionine oxidation

Domaines: Polymères

Michèle Dai, Evangelos Georgilis, Guillaume Goudounet, Bertrand Garbay, Jan Pille, et al.. Refining the Design of Diblock Elastin-Like Polypeptides for Self-Assembly into Nanoparticles. Polymers, 2021, 13 (9), pp.1470. ⟨10.3390/polym13091470⟩. ⟨hal-03250595⟩