Effect of Chirality of Phenylalanine in a Copolymer with L-Lysine on the Self-Assembly and Properties of the Resulting Nanoparticles

Amphiphilic copolymers of amino acids capable of self-assembly in aqueous media into nanoparticles are of interest as potential drug delivery systems. In this work, a series of amphiphilic copolymers of lysine and phenylalanine with different chirality and content of monomer units are synthesized and characterized. Effect of the composition of copolymers on the characteristics and physicochemical and biological properties of nanoparticles formed due to self-assembly is studied. Specifically, the hydrodynamic characteristics of nanoparticles are determined and compared with average diameters in the dry state. Critical aggregation concentrations are assessed and effect of the рН of medium and the time of incubation on the stability of dispersions of nanoparticles is investigated. In addition, the data on the cytotoxicity of nanosystems depending on the chirality of hydrophobic amino acid are obtained.