Review on production and medical applications of ε-polylysine

epsilon-Polylysine (epsilon-PL) is a homopolyamide linked by the peptide bond between the carboxylic and epsilon amino group of adjacent lysine molecules. It is naturally occurring biodegradable and nontoxic towards human. This review article gives an insight about the various epsilon-PL producing strains, their screening procedures, mechanism of synthesis, characterization, and its application in the medical field. The poly cationic nature of epsilon-PL at physiological pH makes it as one of the potential candidates in the field of drug delivery. Most of the biomedical applications till date use synthetic alpha-PLL as a raw material. However, it is believed that naturally occurring epsilon-PL would be an ideal substitute. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.