Synthesis of Seven-Arm Poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) Star Polymers with Lysozyme Core Prepared by MADIX/RAFT Polymerization

A poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) seven-arms star polymer with lysozyme core was synthesized by conjugating linear N-succinimidyl ester terminated PVP polymer to lysozyme. Reactive PVP polymers were synthesized using a MADIX/RAFT agent functionalized with N-succinimidyl ester. The polymerization of N-vinyl pyrrolidone proceeded in a living fashion up to more than 90% conversion reaching molecular weight of up to 33 000 g · mol⁻¹ with narrow molecular weight distributions. The PVP polymer was conjugated to lysozyme resulting in the attachment of seven PVP polymers to one lysozyme core. While the reaction was found to be complete when using low-molecular weight PVP, some by-products with less than seven arms were observed when using PVP with a molecular weight of 33 000 g · mol⁻¹.