Rational Design of Biomolecules/Polymer Hybrids by Reversible Deactivation Radical Polymerization (RDRP) for Biomedical Applications

Hybrids, produced by hybridization of proteins, peptides, DNA, and other new biomolecules with polymers, often have unique functional properties. These properties, such as biocompatibility, stability and specificity, lead to various smart biomaterials. This review mainly introduces biomolecule-polymer hybrid materials by reversible deactivation radical polymerization(RDRP), emphasizing reverse addition-fragmentation chain transfer(RAFT) polymerization, and nitroxide mediated polymerization(NMP). It includes the methods of RDRP to improve the biocompatibility of biomedical materials and organisms by surface modification. The key to the current synthesis of biomolecule-polymer hybrids is to control polymerization. Besides, this review describes several different kinds of biomolecule-polymer hybrid materials and their applications in the biomedical field. These progresses provide ideas for the investigation of biodegradable and highly bioactive biomedical soft tissue materials. The research hotspots of nanotechnology in biomedical fields are controlled drug release materials and gene therapy carrier materials. Research showed that RDRP method could improve the therapeutic effect and reduce the dosage and side effects of the drug.Specifically, by means of RDRP, the original materials can be modified to develop intelligent polymer materials as membrane materials with selective permeability and surface modification.