A study of polymer-metal-protein complexes and effects of irradiation

Abstract

In the present work, complex formation of some water soluble polymers (polyacrylic acid, polyacrylamide containing amino acid end group, and polyacrylamide containing no end group) with Bovine Serum Albumin (as a model protein) in the presence of divalent copper ions (Cu2+) was investigated using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) before evaluating their possible usage as a radioprotector. For this purpose, polyacrylamide with and without functional end groups were synthesized. The molecular weight (MW) distributions of the polymers synthesized at different reaction conditions were analyzed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). In order to facilitiate an understanding of the complex formation mechanism of the triple complexes, the HPLC analysis of polymer-metal and polymer-protein complexes were also performed. Finally, aqueous solutions of polyacrylic acid (PAA), BSA, PAA-Cu2+, PAA-Cu2+- BSA, and PAA-BSA were irradiated using a Co-60 gamma source for a total dose of 1.2 kGy and ultimately, HPLC and spectrophotometric methods were employed to these samples in order to investigate the effect of irradiation on them.