Development of a Dual‐Functional Hydrogel Using RGD and Anti‐VEGF Aptamer

Abstract

Synthetic molecular libraries hold great potential to advance the biomaterial development. However, little effort is made to integrate molecules with molecular recognition abilities selected from different libraries into a single biomolecular material. The purpose of this work is to incorporate peptides and nucleic acid aptamers into a porous hydrogel to develop a dual-functional biomaterial. The data show that an anti-integrin peptide can promote the attachment and growth of endothelial cells in a 3D porous poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogel and an antivascular endothelial growth factor aptamer can sequester and release VEGF of high bioactivity. Importantly, the dual-functional porous hydrogel enhances the growth and survival of endothelial cells. This work demonstrates that molecules selected from different synthetic libraries can be integrated into one system for the development of novel biomaterials.

Modulating Alginate Hydrogels for Improved Biological Performance as Cellular 3D Microenvironments

“…In fact, unlike mammalian polysaccharides such as hyaluronan, a glycosaminoglycan present in the extracellular matrix (ECM) that intrinsically contains functional domains (e.g., cell receptors such as CD44) (Misra et al, 2015 ), alginate lacks the ability to specifically interact with mammalian cells. To address this, chemical modifications to incorporate cell instructive/responsive moieties in otherwise “bioinert” polymers have been widely performed both in alginate and in several other natural or artificial polymers (Bidarra et al, 2010 ; Neves et al, 2015 ; Heo et al, 2017 ; Zhao et al, 2017 ; Kudva et al, 2018 ; Pereira et al, 2018a , b ). These “biofunctionalizations” can thus be designed to confer key biological features, like cell adhesiveness (Neves et al, 2015 ; Zhao et al, 2017 ; Kudva et al, 2018 ) or sensitivity to proteolytic degradation (Fonseca et al, 2011 ; Pereira et al, 2018b ), in polymers that despite being biocompatible are inert, non-fouling or non-adhesive materials ( Figure 3 ).…”

Dynamic, Bioresponsive Hydrogels via Changes in DNA Aptamer Conformation

“…Therefore, they hold great promise for various diagnostic and therapeutic applications such as molecular imaging, disease diagnosis, drug development, and targeted delivery . In particular, Wang and coworkers demonstrated that when conjugated to hydrogel network, DNA aptamers mediated specific binding and release of proteins and cells . DNA aptamers are identified from random libraries of 10 12 to 10 16 oligonucleotides by an in vitro iterative selection process called systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX), which eliminates the need for sophisticated design of binding units.…”

Biomaterials for Sequestration of Growth Factors and Modulation of Cell Behavior

“…The group of Wang, in particular, has developed several systems for stable retention and complementary strand-triggered release of the captured protein. [156][157][158][159][160]163,164] PEG diacrylate gels have been used as base materials for most of these works, serving as controllable synthetic hydrogel platforms which can be readily modified with the aptamers. The authors began by developing a superporous material using free radical polymerization coupled with gas foaming, with the goal of attaining high uptake and loading of target molecules, as well as allowing space for cell migration and transport of nutrients and oxygen.…”