Sialic Acid-Responsive Polymeric Interface Material: From Molecular Recognition to Macroscopic Property Switching

Abstract

Biological systems that utilize multiple weak non-covalent interactions and hierarchical assemblies to achieve various bio-functions bring much inspiration for the design of artificial biomaterials. However, it remains a big challenge to correlate underlying biomolecule interactions with macroscopic level of materials, for example, recognizing such weak interaction, further transforming it into regulating material’s macroscopic property and contributing to some new bio-applications. Here we designed a novel smart polymer based on polyacrylamide (PAM) grafted with lactose units (PAM-g-lactose0.11), and reported carbohydrate-carbohydrate interaction (CCI)-promoted macroscopic properties switching on this smart polymer surface. Detailed investigations indicated that the binding of sialic acid molecules with the grafted lactose units via the CCIs induced conformational transformation of the polymer chains, further resulted in remarkable and reversible switching in surface topography, wettability and stiffness. With these excellent recognition and response capacities towards sialic acid, the PAM-g-lactose0.11 further facilitated good selectivity, strong anti-interference and high adsorption capacity in the capture of sialylated glycopeptides (important biomarkers for cancers). This work provides some enlightenment for the development of biointerface materials with tunable property, as well as high-performance glycopeptide enrichment materials.

Sialic Acid-Targeted Biointerface Materials and Bio-Applications

“…Furthermore, in order to better mimic the structure of oligosaccharides involved in the SA recognition process, we recently improved the material design and focused on disaccharide to prepare a glycopolymeric interface material based on polyacrylamide grafted with lactose (denoted as PAM- g -lactose), with the expectation to present more outstanding target recognition and binding capability [ 80 ]. After similar screening steps, lactose came to the fore and specifically recognized SA.…”

Carbon black-containing self-healing adhesive hydrogels for endoscopic tattooing

“…For instance, catechol-functionalized polymers (i.e., chitosancatechol [20][21][22] , hyaluronic acid-catechol 23,24 , and alginate-catechol 25 ) exhibit significant enhancements of tissue adhesions compared to unmodified polymers. PBA conjugation also provides adhesive properties by boronate ester formation with glycoproteins, peptidoglycan, and polysaccharides [26][27][28][29][30][31][32] . Furthermore, CB-containing hydrogels are long-lasting under physiological conditions compared with hydrogels without CB.…”