Self-Assembled Peptide Sheet-Mediated Multivalent Capture of Cells with Enhanced Tunability

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Surface Chemistry
• Cell Biology

Background:

• Developing effective cell capture and targeting strategies is crucial for various biomedical applications.
• Current methods often rely on dendrimers or organic scaffolds, which have limitations in ligand presentation and control.
• Multivalent interactions are key for enhancing binding affinity and specificity in biological systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create novel multivalent ligand surfaces for enhanced cell capture and targeting.
• To investigate the efficacy of 2D peptide assemblies in organizing ligands for improved cell binding.
• To develop a versatile platform for customizable cell-binding materials.

Main Methods:

• Conjugation of ligand-appended 2D peptide assemblies onto an antifouling glass substrate.
• Utilizing controlled peptide coassembly to modulate ligand identity, number, and spatial distribution.
• Fabricating surfaces with single and dual ligand types for comparative analysis.

Main Results:

• Peptide assemblies organized ligands into non-uniform, patchy patterns, significantly enhancing multivalent cell targeting.
• Achieved a 155% increase in captured cells compared to surfaces without peptide sheets.
• Demonstrated a 128% enhancement in targeting selectivity between two model cells using a dual-ligand surface.

Conclusions:

• Integration of peptide assemblies provides a facile and effective method for manipulating multivalent cell targeting.
• This approach offers an orthogonal alternative to existing scaffolds for designing advanced cell-binding materials.
• The developed peptide assembly-based surfaces show robust performance in cell capture and selective targeting.