DEGRADATION BEHAVIOR OF IONIC STEPWISE POLYADDITION POLYMERS OF MEDICAL INTEREST

The aim of this presentation is to review some of our recent work most ly on poly(amido-amine)s (PAAs) and some other families of polymers st ructurally related to PAAs of medical interest. PAAs are obtained by s tepwise polyaddition of primary monoamines, or bis secondary amines, t o bisacrylamides. There are several other ter-amino polymers structura lly related to PAAs, such poly(amido phosphine)s (PAPs), poly(ester-am ine)s (PEAs), poly(ketone-amine)s (PKAs), poly(amidothioeteramine)s (P ATAs) poly(esterthioether amine)s (PTEAs), and poly(sulphone thioether amine)s (PSTAs). Most of the PAAs exhibit heparin complexing ability. PAAs are also being considered as soluble carriers for delivering anti -cancer drugs. Some of these polymers have been studied as antimicrobi al agents. PAAs with different structures degrade at different rates u nder physiological conditions. The degradation rate is also strongly i nfluenced by pH. The quaternarized PATAs and PTEAs are reasonably stab le over a period of some days, but ultimately degrade to oligomeric pr oducts, while the quaternized PAAs do rapidly degrade.