Abstract
The ability to glycosylate surfaces has medical and diagnostic applications, but there is no technology currently recognized as being able to coat any surface without the need for prior chemical modification of the surface. Recently, a family of constructs called function-spacer-lipids (FSL) has been used to glycosylate cells. Because it is known that lipid-based material can adsorb onto surfaces, we explored the potential and performance of cell-labelling FSL constructs to “glycosylate” non-biological surfaces. Using blood group A antigen as an indicator, the performance of a several variations of FSL constructs to modify a large variety of non-biological surfaces was evaluated. It was found the FSL constructs when optimised could in a few seconds glycosylate almost any non-biological surface including metals, glass, plastics, rubbers and other polymers. Although the FSL glycan coating was non-covalent, and therefore temporary, it was sufficiently robust with appropriate selection of spacer and surface that it could capture anti-glycan antibodies, immobilize cells (via antibody), and withstand incubation in serum and extensive buffer washing, making it suitable for diagnostic and research applications.
Highlights
Glycosylation of biological surfaces is well established and known to have important roles and the mimicking of these glycosylation patterns on non-biological surfaces has uses and potential in basic research as well as techniques ranging from medical applications [1] through to diagnostics [2]
The relative surface areas of the coupons and their ability to retain the enzyme immunoassay (EIA) precipitate potentially contributed to the variations in intensity seen between different materials
The effect of the reduction of surface tension by the surfactant could be seen with a larger diameter of the spot applied. These results indicate the presence of a surfactant may have significant impact on the rate at which the FSL is able to bind to the surface depending on the type of spacer
Summary
Glycosylation of biological surfaces is well established and known to have important roles and the mimicking of these glycosylation patterns on non-biological surfaces has uses and potential in basic research as well as techniques ranging from medical applications [1] through to diagnostics [2]. We report here an extension of this physical adsorption method to rapidly coat almost any non-biological surface by using function-spacer-lipid (FSL) constructs previously used for the modification of cells and viruses [4,5,6,7]. FSL constructs unlike other lipidated glycans and neoglycolipids have a spacer included in their architecture. This spacer facilitates conjugation of the glycan to the lipid tail and can be designed to bring additional features to the construct, including controlled spacing away from a membrane, ligand spacing and enhanced attachment and retention on biological and non-biological surfaces [4,5]. Unlike in the plasma membrane of a cell where the lipid tail of the FSL construct is able to insert into the lipid bilayer, on solid non-biological surfaces it instead imparts on the FSL construct an amphiphatic character, which drives the self-assembling process on surfaces and probably their surface adhesion via water-exclusion [4]
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