ABSTRACT
In recent years, development of biodegradable polymers has been one of the leading frontiers in constructing new biomaterials for sophisticated medical applications. One of the most promising representatives of biodegradable polymers aresynthetic analogs of proteins made of naturally occurring α-amino acids. Various families of synthetic analogs of proteins (SAPs) were designed during the last two or three decades.The first representatives of SAPs were poly(aminoacid)s followed by pseudo-(polyaminoacid)s, poly(depsipeptide)s, and pseudo-proteins (PPs). PPs are SAPs synthesized via step-growth polymerization from key bis-nucleophilic monomers—diamine-diesters (DADEs) composed of two moles of amino acids and one mole of diols. Depending on the nature of key bis-electrophilic monomers—counter-partners of DADEs—three basic classes of PPs—poly(esteramide)s, poly(esterurea)s and poly(esterurethane)s—were synthesized and studied as biodegradable biomaterials. These three classes of PPs provide the widest range of properties of the biomaterials used as absorbable surgical or pharmaceutical devices. The scope of applications of the PPs could substantially be expanded by designing their functionalized analogs using (1) functionalized bis-nucleophilic co-monomers, (2) N-carboxyanhydrides as co-monomers, (3) functionalized DADEs.and (4) functionalized bis-electrophilic monomers, or (5) by polymer-analogous transformations of various active pre-PPs.
