The self-assembly of a tripeptide into particles with different morphologies is described along with the particles application as antibiofouling and antimicrobial coatings.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of developing surfaces and coatings with antiviral activity. Here, we present, for the first time, peptide-based assemblies that can kill viruses. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the assemblies is in the range tens of micrograms per milliliter. This value is 2 orders of magnitude smaller than the MIC of metal nanoparticles. When applied on a surface, by drop casting, the peptide spherical assemblies adhere to the surface and form an antiviral coating against both RNA-and DNA-based viruses including coronavirus. Our results show that the coating reduced the number of T4 bacteriophages (DNA-based virus) by 3 log, compared with an untreated surface and 6 log, when compared with a stock solution. Importantly, we showed that this coating completely inactivated canine coronavirus (RNA-based virus). This peptide-based coating can be useful wherever sterile surfaces are needed to reduce the risk of viral transmission.
What do you consider to be the exciting developments in the field?We demonstrated the catalytic activity of the non-coded amino acid DOPA. In some cases, DOPA performed better than the coded amino acid His. We believe that this finding on a noncoded amino acid can advance the area of prebiotic catalysis. Hopefully, it will lead to a better understanding of enzyme's evolution.
Better understanding how reactions have been catalyzed in the prebiotic world is important for better realizing how enzymes have evolved. The dominant hypothesis is that the first catalyst was an RNA molecule. It was also assumed that amyloid fibrils, self‐assembled by peptides or proteins, served as the first catalysts. However, debate still exists regarding which process occurred first: the polymerization of RNA or the synthesis of proteins. Here, we show that an individual amino acid, L‐3,4‐dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA), can act as a catalyst. This amino acid is the main constituent of mussel adhesion proteins that function in harsh conditions very similar to plausible prebiotic conditions. By tracing the hydrolysis of two compounds, p‐nitrophenylacetate and acetylcholine, we showed that DOPA catalyzes a reaction; we suggest its role as a prebiotic catalyst.
Antiviral compounds are important for generating sterile surfaces. Here, two extremely short peptides, DOPA‐Phe‐NH2 and DOPA‐Phe(4F)‐NH2 that can self‐assemble into spherical nanoparticles with antiviral activity are presented. The peptide assemblies possess excellent antiviral activity against bacteriophage T4 with antiviral minimal inhibitory concentrations of 125 and 62.5 µg mL−1, for DOPA‐Phe‐NH2 and DOPA‐Phe(4F)‐NH2, respectively. When the peptide assemblies are applied on a glass substrate by drop‐casting, they deactivate more than 99.9% of bacteriophage T4 and Canine coronavirus. Importantly, the peptide assemblies have low toxicity toward mammalian cells. Overall, the findings can provide a novel strategy for the design and development of antiviral coatings for a decreased risk of viral infections.
In March 2020, the World Health Organization announced a pandemic attributed to SARS-CoV-2, a novel beta-coronavirus, which spread widely from China. As a result, the need for antiviral surfaces has increased significantly. Here, the preparation and characterization of new antiviral coatings on polycarbonate (PC) for controlled release of activated chlorine (Cl+) and thymol separately and combined are described. Thin coatings were prepared by polymerization of 1-[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl] urea (TMSPU) in ethanol/water basic solution by modified Stöber polymerization, followed by spreading the formed dispersion onto surface-oxidized PC film using a Mayer rod with appropriate thickness. Activated Cl-releasing coating was prepared by chlorination of the PC/SiO2-urea film with NaOCl through the urea amide groups to form a Cl-amine derivatized coating. Thymol releasing coating was prepared by linking thymol to TMSPU or its polymer via hydrogen bonds between thymol hydroxyl and urea amide groups. The activity towards T4 bacteriophage and canine coronavirus (CCV) was measured. PC/SiO2-urea-thymol enhanced bacteriophage persistence, while PC/SiO2-urea-Cl reduced its amount by 84%. Temperature-dependent release is presented. Surprisingly, the combination of thymol and chlorine had an improved antiviral activity, reducing the amount of both viruses by four orders of magnitude, indicating synergistic activity. For CCV, coating with only thymol was inactive, while SiO2-urea-Cl reduced it below a detectable level.
Developing Antiviral Coatings
In article number 2202161, Tan Hu, Michaela Kaganovich, Meital Reches, and colleagues describe the self‐assembly of two extremely short peptides, DOPA‐Phe and DOPA‐Phe(4F), into spherical nanoparticles with excellent antiviral activity. When applied on a surface by drop‐casting, these peptide assemblies form a transparent coating that deactivate both DNA‐ and RNA‐based viruses by more than 99.9%.
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