Design of Polypeptides Self-Assembling into Antifouling Coatings: Exploiting Multivalency.

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Surface Chemistry
• Protein Engineering

Background:

• Antifouling surfaces are crucial for preventing unwanted material adhesion.
• Previous designs using single solid-binding peptides (SBPs) had limitations in binding strength, solubility, and production yield.
• Developing robust methods for attaching functional polypeptide coatings to diverse materials remains a challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To engineer enhanced antifouling polypeptide brushes with improved binding strength and production characteristics.
• To investigate the efficacy of multivalent binding strategies using solid-binding peptides (SBPs).
• To establish a versatile template for creating polypeptide coatings on various solid surfaces.

Main Methods:

• Design and recombinant production of triblock polypeptides incorporating silica-binding peptides (SBPs), a trimerization domain, and elastin-like polypeptides.
• Characterization of polypeptide brush assembly on silica surfaces.
• Evaluation of antifouling properties against serum albumin.
• Assessment of solubility and yield during recombinant production.

Main Results:

• Multivalent binding strategies using repeated or branched SBPs significantly improved polypeptide brush attachment strength compared to single SBPs.
• A specific triblock design (SBP-Trimerization-Elastin-like polypeptide) exhibited high solubility and production yield.
• The optimized triblock polypeptide rapidly formed stable brushes on silica surfaces.
• These brushes demonstrated excellent antifouling performance against high concentrations of serum albumin.

Conclusions:

• The developed triblock polypeptide design offers a promising strategy for creating highly stable and effective antifouling surfaces.
• This SBP-based triblock architecture provides a versatile template for coating diverse materials beyond silica, including metals and plastics.
• The findings pave the way for advanced biomaterial coatings with tunable properties and broad applicability.