Self-assembly of TMAO at hydrophobic interfaces and its effect on protein adsorption: insights from experiments and...

We offer a novel process to render hydrophobic surfaces resistant to relatively small proteins during adsorption. This was accomplished by self-assembly of a well-known natural osmolyte, trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), a small amphiphilic molecule, on a hydrophobic alkanethiol surface. Measurements of lysozyme (LYS) adsorption on several homogeneous substrates formed from functionalized alkanethiol self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) in the presence and absence of TMAO, and direct interaction energy between the protein and functionalized surfaces, demonstrate the protein-resistant properties of a noncovalently adsorbed self-assembled TMAO layer. Molecular dynamics simulations clearly show that TMAO molecules concentrate near the CH(3)-SAM surface and are preferentially excluded from LYS. Interestingly, TMAO molecules adsorb strongly on a hydrophobic CH(3)-SAM surface, but a trade-off between hydrogen bonding with water, and hydrophobic interactions with the underlying substrate results in a nonintuitive orientation of TMAO molecules at the interface. Additionally, hydrophobic interactions, usually responsible for nonspecific adsorption of proteins, are weakly affected by TMAO. In addition to TMAO, other osmolytes (sucrose, taurine, and betaine) and a larger homologue of TMAO (N,N-dimethylheptylamine-N-oxide) were tested for protein resistance and only N,N-dimethylheptylamine-N-oxide exhibited resistance similar to TMAO. The principle of osmolyte exclusion from the protein backbone is responsible for the protein-resistant property of the surface. We speculate that this novel process of surface modification may have wide applications due to its simplicity, low cost, regenerability, and flexibility.