Functionalisation of free amino groups of lysine dendrigraft (DGL) polymers

Abstract Lysine dendrigraft polymers (DGL) are promising candidates as carriers for targeted drug/gene delivery and bio-imaging, as such deserving extensive chemical functionalisation studies. We describe here examples of complete grafting of DGL amino groups by various substituents: hydrophobic amino acids (Ala, Val, Leu), dicarboxylic acids (succinic, Asp), guanidyl and saccharides (Gal), by means of straightforward coupling reactions, thus opening to versatile tuning of DGL properties (hydrophobicity, nucleophilicity, electric charge…). DGL functionalisation by lactose (when carried out so as to avoid borate ester formation between sugars) however yields partially grafted DGL; besides, partial grafting can be achieved by tuning the reagent/DGL stoichiometric ratio.