Synthesis of Polyphosphazenes with Different Side Groups and Various
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RSC Advances View Article Online REVIEW View Journal | View Issue Synthesis of polyphosphazenes with different side groups and various tactics for drug delivery Cite this: RSC Adv.,2017,7, 23363 Raja Summe Ullah, Li Wang, * Haojie Yu,* Nasir M. Abbasi, Muhammad Akram, Zain -ul-Abdin, Muhammad Saleem, Muhammad Haroon and Rizwan Ullah Khan Polyphosphazenes (PPZs) are hybrid polymers comprising a main chain containing nitrogen and phosphorous linked through interchanging single and double bonds, and side chains. The two chlorine atoms attached to the phosphorous of polydichlorophosphazene, which is produced by thermal ring-opening and living- cationic polymerization, are significant in the importance of polyphosphazene, as they can be easily replaced by an uncountable number of nucleophiles, resulting in hundreds of different PPZs with different properties ranging from hydrophobic to hydrophilic, fast to slow degradation, and burst to sustained drug release. More than seven hundred types of PPZs are synthesized as a result of different combinations of Received 21st November 2016 side groups. For applications in drug delivery, PPZs can be treated in various ways and converted into Accepted 10th April 2017 different vehicles of nano/micro size to load and release drugs. This review covers the synthesis of PPZs Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. DOI: 10.1039/c6ra27103k and their different modifications, especially focusing on the side groups and different vehicles, including rsc.li/rsc-advances microspheres, micelles, films and hydrogels, that are involved in drug-delivery applications. 1 Introduction lenses, surgically replaced parts and tissue engineering. The polymer rst used is poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), which One of the greatest inventions in the eld of materials is the was used as an intraocular lens.3 Aer that, scientists started to invention of polymeric biomaterials. Natural polymers have pay more attention to the development of a variety of new been used as biomaterials for thousands of years,1 but scientists biopolymers that can meet the demands of modern medical This article is licensed under a have started to pay attention to synthetic polymeric biomate- technologies. The rising elds of biotechnology, tissue engi- rials only in the last century and started to use them in the last neering and medicine require such materials that are biocom- mid-century.2 The use of these biomaterials has expanded patible, biodegradable and offer complete renal clearance. The Open Access Article. Published on 03 May 2017. Downloaded 9/25/2021 10:04:02 AM. almost every eld of medicine and surgery, including blood commonly developed synthetic biopolymers include poly- contact devices, nanomedicines and their carriers, intraocular (glycolic acid), poly(lactic acid), poly(lactic-glycolic acid), poly- (caprolactone), polyurethanes and polyphosphazenes.4 Among these, polyphosphazene is an auspicious biomaterial due to its State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical and Biological bioavailability, biocompatibility, biodegradability, exibility in Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. E-mail: opl_wl@dial. its structural design and tunability of its properties. Due to this zju.edu.cn; [email protected]; Fax: +86-571-8795-1612; Tel: +86-571-8795-3200 Raja Summe Ullah got his Li Wang obtained his PhD from Master's degree from University Zhejiang University and of Gujrat, Pakistan. He is now completed postdoctoral research a doctoral student under the at Waterloo University, supervision of Prof. Li Wang at Waterloo, Canada. He was Zhejiang University, People's a Visiting Professor at University Republic of China. His research of Washington, Seattle, WA, interests include the synthesis of USA. He currently holds the title novel functional polymers of professor and doctor tutor at mainly focusing on poly- Zhejiang University. His phosphazenes for drug delivery. research interests mainly focus on functional polymers, nano- materials, and novel catalysts for olen polymerization. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017 RSC Adv.,2017,7, 23363–23391 | 23363 View Article Online RSC Advances Review regulated by the substitution of hydrophilic and hydrophobic groups, or the combination of both groups in appropriate ratios.7 The degradation rate can also be controlled by external stimuli, such as temperature, radiation, pH of the degradation medium and degradation product solubility. Many researchers have investigated the biocompatibility of PPZs both in vivo and in vitro by different methods.7–10 Nowadays, the use of PPZs in drug-delivery applications,11 especially proteins and anti-cancer drug-delivery, has become a signicant focus.12–14 The synthetic exibility of PPZs offers the possibility of designing polymers Fig. 1 (a) Hexachlorocyclotriphosphazene (HCCP), (b) polydi- chlorophosphazene (PDCP). with the required properties and degradation rates, which are valuable for the development of various carriers to deliver drugs. This paper reviews the effects of various side groups attached through different linkage sites on the properties of all-in-one presentation of polyphosphazene, it is a promising resultant PPZs and their use in different approaches, such as class of biopolymer. Hundreds of different kinds of poly- drug delivery. phosphazenes (PPZs) with different characteristics and behav- iors have been synthesized, most of which are biodegradable and can be used for biomedical applications. PPZs are a class of 2 Synthesis of polyphosphazenes hybrid organic–inorganic polymers. The main chain of PPZs PPZs are normally synthesized from two main raw materials: comprises phosphorous and nitrogen, which are bound with hexachlorocyclotriphosphazene (N P Cl ), which is used in each other through alternating single and double bonds. The 3 3 6 thermal ring-opening polymerization, and phosphoranimine most interesting thing in the formation of polyphosphazene is Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. (Cl P]NSiMe ), which is used in living cationic polymerization. the presence of two chlorine atoms on the phosphorous, as 3 3 No matter which starting material is used, the intermediate shown in Fig. 1. These chlorine atoms can be easily replaced by stage of all the PPZs prepared by these two processes is PDCP. numerous side groups, which is very rare in other polymers. As The synthesis of non-cross-linked PDCP is the key step for the a result, the number of PPZs with different side groups and fruitful preparation of PPZs.15 Cross-linking of PDCP due to the a wide range of properties is growing day by day.5,6 presence of moisture or air (mostly water vapours) may result in A wide variety of different organic molecules can act as swelling and insolubility in any solvent. Many researchers have nucleophiles for the substitution of chlorine in polydi- used different methods to synthesize PDCP.16,17 chlorophosphazene (PDCP), which broadens the spectrum of ff This article is licensed under a PPZs with di erent properties. Initially, the synthesized PPZs were not degradable in water because they formed an insoluble 2.1 Thermal ring-opening polymerization rubber-type material due to cross-linking of chains, so they The most commonly used route to synthesize PPZs is thermal could not be utilized for biological purposes. Later on, the ring-opening polymerization (TROP), which is extensively Open Access Article. Published on 03 May 2017. Downloaded 9/25/2021 10:04:02 AM. introduction of specic side groups, such as amino acid esters, employed for the ring-opening process of hexa- alkoxy, imidazole and amines, to the main chain resulted in chlorocyclotriphosphazene (HCCP) to synthesize PDCP.5,15 hydrolytically sensitive and degradable PPZs. The non-toxic Stokes was the pioneer of using this method in 1897, but the degradation products of PPZs opened new era of their PDCP he synthesized was cross-linked and could not be dis- biomedical application, including drug delivery and tissue solved in any solvent. This process gained attention in 1965 engineering. Furthermore, the degradation of PPZs can be when Allcock and co-workers successfully synthesized non- Haojie Yu is an associate Mr Muhammad Haroon is professor and doctor tutor at the currently a doctoral student in College of Chemical and Bio- Zhejiang University, Hangzhou logical Engineering, Zhejiang China. He has done his master University, China. He received degree in organic chemistry at his PhD degree and did post- Gomal University Dera Ismail doctoral research at Zhejiang Khan, Pakistan. His research University. He served as interests are functional poly- a visiting associate researcher at mers, especially starch University of California, Irvine, derivatives. USA. His research interests mainly focus on novel functional polymers, nanocomposites, and coatings. 23364 | RSC Adv.,2017,7, 23363–23391 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017 View Article Online Review RSC Advances Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. This article is licensed under a Open Access Article. Published on 03 May 2017. Downloaded 9/25/2021 10:04:02 AM. Scheme 1 Reaction mechanism of ring-opening polymerization.27 crosslinked PDCP that showed good solubility in various be easily replaced by suitable nucleophilic groups to synthesize organic solvents.18 This process involves the heating of HCCP at a variety of PPZs.18–20 If the heating temperature is increased to high temperature under vacuum and in the presence of