Associative and Dissociative Processes in Non-Covalent Polymer-Mediated Intracellular Protein Delivery

Functional protein delivery has created new opportunities for studying intracellular processes and discovering new therapeutics. To that end, researchers have pursued intracellular protein delivery by using an increasing number of methods. This focus review will highlight polymeric carriers that non-covalently bind and deliver protein cargo in vitro. The correlation between polymer-protein binding and delivery as well as the correlation between complex-membrane binding and delivery is reviewed. Finally, binding and its relation to the intracellular function of the protein post-delivery is considered. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the role that binding interactions play in the non-covalent protein-delivery landscape. Presently, the literature does not adequately resolve how binding throughout the process ultimately affects delivery. The field does contain preliminary insights that are expected to impact future delivery applications when developed further.