Mannose-based graft polyesters with tunable binding affinity to concanavalin A

Glycopolymers have been widely used to understand the interactions between carbohydrates and lectins, which facilitate the diagnosis and detection of disease and pathogens as well as the development of vaccines. While studies have been focused on the correlation of glycopolymer structure and their binding to lectins, graft-type glycopolyesters are uncommon. Herein, we report the design and synthesis of mannose-based graft polyesters by “grafting-from” method and investigate their interactions with Concanavalin A (Con A). As confirmed by 1H NMR spectroscopy and sulfuric acid-UV method, graft polyesters with different lengths of mannose graft were successfully synthesized. Our results from turbidimetry binding assay showed that graft polyesters with longer mannose graft exhibit higher initial binding rate (ki). Isothermal titration calorimetry measurements of these graft polyesters with Con A showed that polymers exhibit higher binding affinity (ka) with the number of side chain mannose. This study provides understanding of the interaction between Con A and mannose-based graft polyesters, which can be employed for the development of glycopolymeric therapeutics. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017, 55, 3908–3917