posted on 2021-11-04, 14:43authored byFelicitas Jansen, Philipp A. Schuster, Markus Lamla, Christian Trautwein, Alexander J. C. Kuehne
Conjugated polymer
particles provide an important platform for
the development of theranostic nanoagents. However, the number of
biocompatible and foremost biodegradable π-conjugated polymers
is limited. Imidazole is a π-conjugated motif that is abundant
in biological systems. Oxidative degradation of imidazole is present
in nature via enzymatic or free radical processes. In this work, we
introduce polymer particles consisting purely of polyimidazole. We
employ direct arylation polymerization and adapt it to a dispersion
polymerization protocol to yield uniform and narrowly dispersed nanoparticles.
We employ this mechanism to produce linear and cross-linked polymer
particles to tune the optical properties from fluorescent to photoacoustically
active. We show that the particles can be degraded by H2O2 as well as by reactive oxygen species produced by cells
and we detect the degradation products. Altogether, our results suggest
that polyimidazole particles represent ideal candidates for theranostic
applications.