Grafted Polymer Architecture as a Tool to Inform Mechanisms of Polymer-Cell Membrane Interactions

Amphiphilic poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(propylene oxide) (PEO-b-PPO) block polymers interact with phospholipid bilayers and have been shown to stabilize cell membranes under stress. In this work, we seek to study the mechanisms of polymer-lipid interactions by leveraging known structure-property relationships of graft polymers. We developed a grafting-through approach to synthesize grafted, block amphiphiles with PEO and PPO side chains. Bulk crystallization and aqueous micellization behavior were investigated over a range of molecular weights and compositions to assess differences between grafted and linear block polymers. Select grafted polymers, chosen to address mechanistic structure-function hypotheses, were evaluated for polymer-lipid binding via pulsed-field gradient NMR and for membrane stabilization of cells under stress via a macromolecular release assay.