Controlling Protein Adsorption through Nanostructured Polymeric Surfaces

Abstract

The initial host response to healthcare materials' surfaces after implantation is the adsorption of proteins from blood and interstitial fluids. This adsorbed protein layer modulates the biological/cellular responses to healthcare materials. This stresses the significance of the surface protein assembly for the biocompatibility and functionality of biomaterials and necessitates a profound fundamental understanding of the capability to control protein–surface interactions. This review, therefore, addresses this by systematically analyzing and discussing strategies to control protein adsorption on polymeric healthcare materials through the introduction of specific surface nanostructures. Relevant proteins, healthcare materials' surface properties, clinical applications of polymer healthcare materials, fabrication methods for nanostructured polymer surfaces, amorphous, semicrystalline and block copolymers are considered with a special emphasis on the topographical control of protein adsorption. The review shows that nanostructured polymer surfaces are powerful tools to control the amount, orientation, and order of adsorbed protein layers. It also shows that the understanding of the biological responses to such ordered protein adsorption is still in its infancy, yet it has immense potential for future healthcare materials. The review, which is—as far as it is known—the first one discussing protein adsorption on nanostructured polymer surfaces, concludes with highlighting important current research questions.

Double‐Helical Nanostructures with Controllable Handedness in Bulk Diblock Copolymers

“…However, bulk polymer materials with a double‐stranded helix with clear handedness have scarcely been reported so far, mainly owing to their poor stability and difficulties in controlling their handedness. As an important tectonic unit, block copolymers (BCPs) composed of different chemical segments have been extensively investigated for the construction of various nanostructures with application in photolithography and biotechnologies . Previous reports showed that under controlled conditions, BCPs can adopt a large variety of helical forms, including single, double, and triple helices .…”

Interactions of Nanoparticles and Biosystems: Microenvironment of Nanoparticles and Biomolecules in Nanomedicine

“…Thus, for example circulatory cells are covered by a lipid bilayer with proteins and polysaccharides that, depending on the groups that the nanoparticle possesses, will favor one or another interaction mechanism [40]. Another example is manifested in proteins affected by their molecular weight, charge (there is greater adsorption near the isoelectric pH where repulsion of charges between different adsorbed molecules is minimized) or its stability (which influences the number of binding points [41]. A soft protein layer, which has a low structural stability, has a greater number of active centers through which it can interact); besides affecting physicochemical factors of the surface (i.e., humectability).…”

“…According to the literature, most of the relevant interacting biomolecules to the nanoparticle surfaces are proteins and nucleic acids [42]. Proteins have many different binding sites (as amino acidic key structures and/or post-translational modifications) onto nanoparticles surfaces through specific or non-specific adsorption [41,43]; in addition, the proteins are critical on the immunebiocompatibility of the nanomaterials. Nucleic acids are another biomolecule of interest, which have many different applications as a consequence of its physicochemical stability, mechanical rigidity, easy accessibility and its high specificity of base pairing, result in a suitable receptor easily to design for molecular nanoconstruction [44].…”

Influence of poly(acrylic acid) grafting density on switchable protein adsorption/desorption of poly(2‐methyl‐2‐oxazoline)/poly(acrylic acid) mixed brushes

“…Controlled protein adsorption on the surface of materials has been the topic of great interest in biomedical and biotechnological fields over the years . For instance, protein adsorption on the surface of biosensors can not only limit the accuracy of analysis but reduce the useful life of equipment as well, which is uncontrolled and nondesirable .…”