Streptavidin-coated surfaces suppress bacterial colonization by inhibiting non-specific protein adsorption

Streptavidin is a 58 kDa tetrameric protein with the highest known affinity to biotin with a wide range of applications in bionanotechnology and molecular biology. Dissolved streptavidin is stable at a broad range of temperature, pH, proteolytic enzymes and exhibits low non-specific binding. In this study, a streptavidin monolayer was assembled directly on a biotinylated TiO₂ -surface to investigate its stability against proteolytic digestion and its suppression of initial bacterial adsorption of Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Streptococcus intermedius. In contrast to nonmodified TiO₂ surfaces, streptavidin-coated substrates showed only a negligible non-specific protein adsorption at physiological protein concentrations as well as a significantly reduced bacterial adhesion. The antiadhesive properties were demonstrated to be the main reason for the suppression of bacterial adhesion, which makes this approach a promising option for future surface biofunctionalization applications. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 758-768, 2018.