Reactive PEGs for protein conjugation

Abstract

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) derivatives are the first choice of the water soluble, biocompatible polymers on hand for conjugation to proteins and polypeptides. This chapter deals with the PEG reagents that are available for the preparation of bioconjugates. The opportunities of different reactive groups on PEG are described and their different activities against the functional moieties of the amino acids are illustrated. Some attention is also given to the modification of the PEG backbone to increase its loading capacity and to eventually modify the stability of the conjugating bonds.