Abstract: Polypeptide materials, obtained by ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides (NCAs), are an important class of biomedical materials. Through the design of functional monomers and post-polymerization modifications, polypeptide materials are able to respond to endogenous or exogenous stimuli through structural changes under specific microenvironment, thus selectively releasing the conjugated or encapsulated drugs on demand. Therefore, stimulus-responsive polypeptide materials have a wide range of studies in various biomedical fields such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, immune regulation, and antibacterial applications. Researchers have devoted numerous efforts to the design of stimulus-responsive polypeptide materials for the treatment of cancer and other diseases, aiming to enable versatile structural changes to specific stimuli. Herein we reviewed the development of stimulus-responsive chemistry in polypeptides, summarized the versatile designs of polypeptide-based nanomedicines, and highlighted their biomedical applications. The comments on the future development of stimulus-responsive polypeptides were incorporated at the end of our review.
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