Open AccessEngineering Protein Hydrogels Using SpyCatcher-SpyTag Chemistry
Author(s) -
Xiaoye Gao,
Jie Fang,
Bin Xue,
Linglan Fu,
Hongbin Li
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
biomacromolecules
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.689
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1526-4602
pISSN - 1525-7797
DOI - 10.1021/acs.biomac.6b00566
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , chemistry , protein engineering , biocompatibility , nanotechnology , tissue engineering , drug delivery , tandem , modular design , soft materials , materials science , biochemistry , computer science , biomedical engineering , polymer chemistry , organic chemistry , engineering , composite material , enzyme , operating system
Constructing hydrogels from engineered proteins has attracted significant attention within the material sciences, owing to their myriad potential applications in biomedical engineering. Developing efficient methods to cross-link tailored protein building blocks into hydrogels with desirable mechanical, physical, and functional properties is of paramount importance. By making use of the recently developed SpyCatcher-SpyTag chemistry, we successfully engineered protein hydrogels on the basis of engineered tandem modular elastomeric proteins. Our resultant protein hydrogels are soft but stable, and show excellent biocompatibility. As the first step, we tested the use of these hydrogels as a drug carrier, as well as in encapsulating human lung fibroblast cells. Our results demonstrate the robustness of the SpyCatcher-SpyTag chemistry, even when the SpyTag (or SpyCatcher) is flanked by folded globular domains. These results demonstrate that SpyCatcher-SpyTag chemistry can be used to engineer protein hydrogels from tandem modular elastomeric proteins that can find applications in tissue engineering, in fundamental mechano-biological studies, and as a controlled drug release vehicle.