Bio-Decorated Polymer Membranes: A New Approach in Diagnostics and Therapeutics

Abstract

Today, demand exists for new systems that can meet the challenges of identifying biological entities rapidly and specifically in diagnostics, developing stable and multifunctional membranes, and engineering devices at the nanometer scale. In this respect, bio-decorated membranes combine the specificity and efficacy of biological entities, such as peptides, proteins, and DNA, with stability and the opportunity to chemically tailor the properties of polymeric membranes. A smart strategy that serves to fulfill biological criteria is required, whereby polymer membranes come to mimic biological membranes and do not disturb but rather enhance the functioning and activity of a biological entity. Different approaches have been developed, exemplified by either planar or vesicular membranes, allowing insertion inside the polymer membrane or anchoring via functionalization of the membrane surface. Inspired by nature, but incorporating the strength provided by chemical design, bio-decorated polymer membranes represent a novel concept with great potential in diagnostics and therapeutics.

Light-Driven Biocatalysis in Liposomes and Polymersomes: Where Are We Now?

“…Polymersome research focused mainly on targeted drug-delivery and diagnostic imaging [29,30], the de novo-design of artificial cells and the mimicry of organelles in synthetic biology [31,32], and the development of nanoreactors for enzymatic reactions [29,[32][33][34].…”

“…Nevertheless, the successful reconstitution of membrane proteins into polymer membranes has been demonstrated for several types of polymers (see Review [40]), but the functional integration is dependent on both, the nature of the polymer and the membrane thickness [41]. The polymer that has been used most extensively for the integration of membrane proteins, usually for the establishment of a highly selective mass transport into and out of the vesicles, is poly(2-methyloxazoline)-poly(dimethylsiloxane)-poly(2-methyloxazoline) (PMOXA-PDMS-PMOXA) [30,34,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57]. In this case, the ability to accommodate membrane proteins easily and in functional form, is due to the high flexibility and high fluidity of the PDMS-based polymers [41,58,59], as well as to their broad polydispersity [60,61].…”

Protein–Polymer Supramolecular Assemblies: A Key Combination for Multifunctionality

“…[17] Remarkably, synthetic block copolymer membranes allow a functional insertion of membrane proteins, despite being significantly thicker than lipid membranes. [18] For example, transmembrane transport has been demonstrated by successful incorporation of pore proteins LamB, OmpF, maltoporin, and aquaporin into polymer membranes ( Fig.…”

Stability of polymersomes with focus on their use as nanoreactors

“…Polymersomes with narrow particle size distribution, shown by a low polydispersity index (PDI) of less than 0.2 , and a z ‐average (harmonic intensity based particle diameter ) of about 180 nm were produced within 1 h and in only one production step . PMOXA‐PDMS‐PMOXA was used as an exemplary amphiphile since this polymer does not evoke inflammatory response by biological systems and shows good biocompatibility and low cytotoxicity . Besides, this polymer is very suitable for polymersomes intended to serve as nanoscale reactors for enzymatic reactions since the membrane functionalization, for example in form of integration of several transmembrane proteins or the permeabilization of the membrane with a photoreactive permeabilization agent , and the simple surface functionalization with immobilized proteins is feasible.…”