Abstract
Biofouling refers to the undesirable process that leads to the accumulation of microorganisms such as bacteria or fungi on substrates. This is one of the major concerns associated with several components of our regular life such as food, health, water and energy. In the healthcare sector, biofouling on medical devices is known to cause infections, which are often resistant to conventional antibiotics and lead to increase in the number of hospital and surgery-related deaths. One of the better ways to tackle the problem of biofouling is the development of smart antifouling materials that can produce a biocompatible, non-toxic, eco-friendly and functional coating and maintain a biological environment without any adverse effect. To this end, in the present study, we have reported the design and synthesis of two simple chemically modified peptides, namely, PA1 (PFB-VVD) and PA2 (PFB-LLE). The design as well as the amino acid sequence of the peptides contains three basic components that enable their ability to (i) self-assemble into functional coatings, (ii) bind with the desired surface via the bi-dentate coordination of dicarboxylate groups and (iii) exhibit antifouling activity and generate a non-toxic biocompatible supramolecular coating on the desired surface. PA1 having aspartic acid as the anchoring moiety exhibits better antifouling activity compared to PA2 that has glutamic acid as the anchoring moiety. This is probably due to the greater adhesive force or binding affinity of aspartic acid to the examined surface compared to that of glutamic acid, as confirmed by force measurement studies using AFM. Most importantly, the simple drop-coating method promises great advantages due to its ease of operation, which leads to a reduction in the production cost and increase in the scope of commercialization. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to develop an ultra-short peptide-based smart antifouling material with a dicarboxylate group as the surface binding moiety. Furthermore, these findings promise to provide further insights into antifouling mechanisms in the future by the development of a smart material using a dicarboxylate group as an anchoring moiety.
Highlights
Biofouling is an adverse process in which several organisms such as bacteria, fungi, barnacles, bryozoans, and sponges encrust a surface
The results showed that the average adhesion force or most probable force (MPF) for aspartic acid is higher (142 Æ 27 pN) (Fig. 3B) compared to glutamic acid (91 Æ 18 pN) (Fig. 3C); this re ects the stronger adhesion of aspartic acid compared to glutamic acid with a silica (SiO2) surface
The design of these peptides comprises three basic parts: Val–Val/Leu–Leu as the self-assembly unit, glutamic acid/aspartic acid with a dicarboxylate group as the surface affixing unit and a penta uorinated aromatic moiety as the antifouling unit. Both the peptides form functional supramolecular coatings on the silica surface that are able to resist bio lm formation
Summary
Biofouling is an adverse process in which several organisms such as bacteria, fungi, barnacles, bryozoans, and sponges encrust a surface. Several research groups have developed various antifouling coatings to resist biofouling on the surface of biomedical implants Many of these have certain drawbacks, which include a lack of long-term stability, low biocompatibility and substantial toxicity. There is an immense demand for the development of long-term stable, non-toxic and biocompatible antifouling coatings that sustain the biological environment without any adverse effect This can be accomplished by designing smart antifouling materials from biomolecules or combining arti cial active moieties with biomolecules or biocompatible molecules.11a In this context, peptides as a building block have received much attention in an effort to develop smart antifouling materials due to their biocompatible, non-toxic and eco-friendly nature.[13] In recent years, different types of peptides, such as self-assembled,[14] PEGylated,[15] polymer-gra ed,[16] zwitterionic,[17] amphiphilic,17c,18 hydrogelators,[19] and peptidomimetics,[20] have been employed to develop antifouling coatings. For the construction of this type of smart antifouling material, the design should contain three basic components: (i) a self-assembling unit to generate the supramolecular coating (ii) an anchoring unit to adsorb onto different substrates and (iii) an antifouling unit
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