Polymers made of bile acids: from soft to hard biomaterials

Abstract

Bile acids are gaining increasing importance as building blocks in the development of novel polymeric materials. This is evidenced by the growing number of publications advocating the advantages of their incorporation in the design and construction of materials. Composed of a rigid steroid backbone, functional groups with potential towards diverse reactions, and a biocompatible framework, there are various ways in which these molecules can be utilized to afford biomaterials via distinct architectures. Soft materials utilize the intrinsic capacity of bile acids to self-assemble and have seen a range of applications, most notably in the field of drug delivery. On the other hand, there is also the possibility of including bile acids in the polymer backbone, which has been used in the preparation of elastomers. This review discusses a selection of materials that can be prepared using bile acids and the advantages afforded by these molecules. Focus will be on the development of soft and hard materials, where soft materials are described as being held by weak intermolecular interactions, whereas hard materials are mechanically stronger with bile acids covalently incorporated in the polymer network.Key words: bile acids, polymers, biomaterials, drug delivery, dental composites. Résumé :Les acides biliaires sont des synthons de plus en plus importants dans la mise au point de nouveaux matériaux à base de polymères, comme en témoigne le nombre croissant de publications préconisant leur incorporation dans la conception et la fabrication de ces matériaux. Composées d'un squelette stéroïdien rigide, de groupes fonctionnels au potentiel réactionnel diversifié, et d'une structure biocompatible, ces molécules, de par leurs différentes architectures, présentent diverses possibilités d'application dans le domaine des biomatériaux. La capacité intrinsèque des acides biliaires à s'autoassembler permet de produire des matériaux souples dont les applications sont variées, notamment dans le domaine de la libération des médica-ments. Par ailleurs, la possibilité d'intégrer des acides biliaires dans le squelette de polymères a aussi été explorée dans le cadre de la fabrication d'élastomères. Le présent article de synthèse porte sur une sélection de matériaux pouvant être préparés à partir d'acides biliaires et sur les avantages que comportent ces molécules. Une attention particulière est accordée à la mise au point de matériaux souples et de matériaux rigides. On y décrit les matériaux souples comme étant maintenus par des interactions intermoléculaires faibles, tandis que les matériaux rigides, dans lesquels les acides biliaires sont incorporés dans le réseau polymérique par des liaisons covalentes, sont mécaniquement plus solides. [Traduit par la Rédaction]

Facially amphiphilic polyionene biocidal polymers derived from lithocholic acid

“…Recent advances on bile acid in macromolecular research include a variety of structures having bile acids as repeating units in the polymer backbone, as pendant groups along the polymer chain in block, or statistical polymers and chain end-functional polymers [ 31 ]. Notable advances on bile acid polymers have been carried out by Zhu and coworkers [ 32 , 33 ].…”

Recent Progress in Macromolecular Design and Synthesis of Bile Acid‐Based Polymeric Architectures

“…[13,14] In 2016, another short review on hard and soft BA-conjugated polymeric biomaterials was published by Cunningham and Zhu. [15] This minireview provided an overview of the construction of different BAPs, and it avoided detail discussion of structural modulation prospects and characterization techniques of diverse primary and secondary BA-derived polymers. However, in past few years, a tremendous progress has been observed on diverse design and synthesis of BAPs for achieving myriad of motives.…”

Bioinspired Composite, pH-Responsive Sodium Deoxycholate Hydrogel and Generation 4.5 Poly(amidoamine) Dendrimer Improves Cancer Treatment Efficacy via Doxorubicin and Resveratrol Co-Delivery

“…The major advantages of using low molecular weight biosurfactants for the formation of hydrogel over synthetic polymers is the former’s low melt viscosity high biodegradability [ 25 ], high biocompatibility, and the absence of toxic impurities due to simple preparation protocol [ 26 ]. Sodium deoxycholate (Na-DOC) bile salt is a naturally occurring low molecular weight substance that can form hydrogel [ 27 , 28 , 29 ]. The Na-DOC molecules can form macro gel in the presence of inorganic salts (NaBr and NaCl) [ 29 , 30 , 31 ] and amino acids [ 30 , 32 ].…”

“…Sodium deoxycholate (Na-DOC) bile salt is a naturally occurring low molecular weight substance that can form hydrogel [ 27 , 28 , 29 ]. The Na-DOC molecules can form macro gel in the presence of inorganic salts (NaBr and NaCl) [ 29 , 30 , 31 ] and amino acids [ 30 , 32 ].…”