Advances in polymer and polymeric nanostructures for protein conjugation

Linear polymers have been considered the best molecular structures for the formation of efficient protein conjugates due to their biological advantages, synthetic convenience and ease of functionalization. In recent years, much attention has been dedicated to develop synthetic strategies that produce the most control over protein conjugation utilizing linear polymers as scaffolds. As a result, different conjugate models, such as semitelechelic, homotelechelic, heterotelechelic and branched or star polymer conjugates, have been obtained that take advantage of these well-controlled synthetic strategies. Development of protein conjugates using nanostructures and the formation of said nanostructures from protein–polymer bioconjugates are other areas in the protein bioconjugation field. Although several polymer–protein technologies have been developed from these discoveries, few review articles have focused on the design and function of these polymers and nanostructures. This review will highlight some recent advances in protein-linear polymer technologies that employ protein covalent conjugation and successful protein-nanostructure bioconjugates (covalent conjugation as well) that have shown great potential for biological applications.