Investigation into multivalently binding polymers

Biology frequently uses multivalent binding interactions to enhance weak, monovalent binding between molecules such as glycoligands and protein receptors. Synthetic glycopolymers have been shown to successfully bind to targets, such as viruses and toxic proteins. This binding indicates that the use of multivalent polymers can be a promising tool for inhibiting target attachment to and subsequent infection of cells. These polymers would act as decoys, suppressing virulence without killing their target and thus minimizing the development of resistance. Many studies have focused on creating multivalent binders with high affinity and high specificity to a single target. In contrast, we investigate how to design polymers that have broad-spectrum binding affinity, so that a single multivalent polymer could be used to inhibit multiple targets. We use a reactive-binding, Brownian dynamics simulation to examine how patterning of heterogeneous binding sites along a polymer chain control binding affinity of a polymer to multiple types of targets. Our results provide direction for designing polymeric inhibitors able to bind multiple targets simultaneously.