All animals except
sponges produce mucus. Across the animal kingdom,
this hydrogel mediates surface wetting, viscosity, and protection
against microbes. The primary components of mucus hydrogels are mucinshigh
molecular weight O-glycoproteins that adopt extended
linear structures. Glycosylation is integral to mucin function, but
other characteristics that give rise to their advantageous biological
activities are unknown. We postulated that the extended conformation
of mucins is critical for their ability to block microbial virulence
phenotypes. To test this hypothesis, we developed synthetic mucin
mimics that recapitulate the dense display of glycans and morphology
of mucin. We varied the catalyst in a ring-opening metathesis polymerization
(ROMP) to generate substituted norbornene-derived glycopolymers containing
either cis- or trans-alkenes. Conformational analysis of the polymers
based on allylic strain suggested that cis- rather than trans-poly(norbornene)
glycopolymers would adopt linear structures that mimic mucins. High-resolution
atomic force micrographs of our polymers and natively purified Muc2,
Muc5AC, and Muc5B mucins revealed that cis-polymers adopt extended,
mucin-like structures. The cis-polymers retained this structure in
solution and were more water-soluble than their trans-analogs. Consistent
with mucin’s linear morphology, cis-glycopolymers were more
potent binders of a bacterial virulence factor, cholera toxin. Our
findings highlight the importance of the polymer backbone in mucin
surrogate design and underscore the significance of the extended mucin
backbone for inhibiting virulence.