Zwitteration: Coating Surfaces with Zwitterionic Functionality to Reduce Nonspecific Adsorption

Abstract

Coating surfaces with thin or thick films of zwitterionic material is an effective way to reduce or eliminate nonspecific adsorption to the solid/liquid interface. This review tracks the various approaches to zwitteration, such as monolayer assemblies and polymeric brush coatings, on micro- to macroscopic surfaces. A critical summary of the mechanisms responsible for antifouling shows how zwitterions are ideally suited to this task.

Structures and Synthesis of Zwitterionic Polymers

“…Thus not surprisingly, many polyzwitter-ions have been shown to be highly biocompatible [21,27,28], combining strong hydrophilicity with zero net charge and high salt tolerance. In an extension of this reasoning, much interest has focused on polyzwitterions for mimicking cell membranes [29][30][31][32] and for preparing tailored surfaces, as they can confer excellent lubrication [33][34][35] and excellent resistance to (bio)fouling to various materials [27,28,[36][37][38][39][40][41]. The strong interest comprises equally materials for biomedical as well as technical uses.…”

Interfacing Zwitterionic Liposomes with Inorganic Nanomaterials: Surface Forces, Membrane Integrity, and Applications

“…6 It is, however, concluded that the water structure surrounding a zwitterion is unperturbed, similar to that of the bulk water. 5 Therefore, water release related entropy change on the liposome surface does not contribute much thermodynamically to its adsorption. While PC bilayers are anti-fouling, they adsorb all tested inorganic NPs as will be described in this article.…”

“…Anti-fouling is attributed to the lack of ion pair formation between zwitterionic PC and proteins. 5 Proteins usually contain both positively and negatively charged domains. For a surface with a certain charge (i.e.…”

Bioreducible nanocapsules for folic acid-assisted targeting and effective tumor-specific chemotherapy

“…Although the utilization of PEG (also known as PEGylation) has been widely adopted to decorate nanocarriers, recent studies have shown that PEGylation has some critical shortcomings, the most typical of which is the accelerated blood clearance phenomenon. 25 In previous studies, we 26 and other researchers 27 have demonstrated that the zwitterionic polymers were suitable alternatives of PEG, showing benefits due to their good biocompatibility, antifouling properties, pH responses, and so on. Moreover, terminal groups of the International Journal of Nanomedicine 2018:13 submit your manuscript | www.dovepress.com…”