SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THIOCTIC ACID POLYETHYLENE GLYCOL 3 N-HYDROXYSUCCINIMIDE (TA-PEG3-NHS) AND THIOCTIC ACID POLYETHYLENE GLYCOL 600 N HYDROXYSUCCINIMIDE (TA-PEG600-NHS) AS A LINKER BETWEEN QUANTUM DOT AND ANTIVIRAL PEPTIDE

Abstract

Nowadays, nanomaterials study is vastly expanding in the chemistry field with the discovery of quantum dot. The quantum dot is crucial because of their unique property which is be able to absorb and emit at specific wavelength determined by their radius also have the long last fluorescence lifetime, which enables the use of time gated detection. The project plan for this study is important especially on the finding of therapeutic agent towards the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) which could rupture or destroy the virus by doing the integration process on the quantum dot with the dendritic cell-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-3-grabbing non integrin (DC-SIGN) and antiviral peptide. The DC-SIGN which target, attach, and bind to the surface of HIV or HCV, meanwhile the anti-viral peptide will act to destroy the virus at the same time. The main objective of this research is to study, finding and synthesize an efficient linker which could bind between the quantum dot and antiviral peptide. In this research project, the synthesis involves the esterification between the carboxylic acid compounds with the N-Hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) to form carboxylic acid N-Hydroxysuccinimide ester compound. Herein, both compounds, thioctic acid polyethylene glycol 3 N-hydroxysuccinimide (TA-PEG3-NHS) and thioctic acid polyethylene glycol 600 N-hydroxysuccinimide (TA-PEG600-NHS) have been synthesized and identified by using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and infrared (IR) instrumentations. These compounds can be used to covalently link between antiviral peptide and quantum dot. Hence, the variations of the polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG) length may change the presentation of the antiviral peptide on quantum dot surface and can be compared. This research is a milestone to the overall project objective by preparing the two of significant carboxylic acid N-Hydroxysuccinimide ester compounds which are TA PEG3-NHS and TA-PEG600-NHS.