Heterogeneously deacetylated chitosans possess an unexpected regular pattern favoring acetylation at every third position.

ABSTRACT: Chitosans are promising biopolymers for diverse applications, with material properties and bioactivities depending i.a. on their pattern of acetylation (PA). Commercial chitosans are typically produced by heterogeneous deacetylation of chitin, but whether this process yields chitosans with a random or block-wise PA has been debated for decades. Using a combination of recently developed in vitro assays and in silico modeling surprisingly revealed that both hypotheses are wrong; instead, we found a more regular PA in heterogeneously deacetylated chitosans, with acetylated units overrepresented at every third position in the polymer chain. Compared to random-PA chitosans produced by homogeneous deacetylation of chitin or chemical N-acetylation of polyglucosamine, this regular PA increases the

SUBMITTER: Hellmann MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11303684 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature