Highly Active Protein Surfaces Enabled by Plant-Based Polyphenol Coatings

Abstract

Proteins represent complex biomolecules capable of wide-ranging but also highly specific functionalities. Their immobilization on material supports can enable broad applications from sensing and industrial biocatalysis to biomedical interfaces and materials. We demonstrate the advantages of using aqueous-processed cross-linked polyphenol coatings for immobilizing proteins, including IgG, avidin, and various single and multidomain enzymes on diverse materials, to enable active biofunctional structures (e.g., ca. 2.2, 1.7, 1.1, and 4.8 mg•m −2 active phosphatase on nanoporous cellulose and alumina, steel mesh, and polyester fabric, respectively). Enzyme assays, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, silver staining, supplemented with contact angle, solid-state 13 C NMR, HPLC, and ESI-MS measurements were used to characterize the polyphenols, coatings, and protein layers. We show that the functionalization process may be advantageously optimized directly for protein activity rather than the traditional focus on the thickness of the coating layer. Higher activities (by more than an order of magnitude in some cases) and wider process pH and material compatibility are demonstrated with polyphenol coatings than other approaches such as polydopamine. Coatings formed from different plant polyphenol extracts, even at lowered purity (and cost), were also found to be highly functional. Chemically, our results indicate that polyphenol coatings differ from polydopamine mainly because of the elimination of amine groups, and that polyphenol layers with intermediate levels of reactivity may better lead to high immobilized protein activity. Overall, an improved understanding of simple-to-use polyphenol coatings has been obtained, which enabled a significant development in active protein surfaces that may be applied across diverse materials and nanostructured supports.

Plant‐Inspired Pyrogallol‐Containing Functional Materials

“…Abouelmagd et al addressed that coating TA onto poly(lactic‐ co ‐glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles allowed the particles to remain optically inert, facilitating the secondary functionalization of various ligands, small fluorescent dyes, folate‐conjugated and amine‐terminated polymers, proteins, and polysaccharides . A previous study also demonstrated the pyrogallol‐mediated postimmobilization of a variety of proteins, such as acid phosphatase, chymotrypsin, horseradish peroxidase, lactate dehydrogenase, and immunoglobulin G (IgG) . In conclusion, to achieve high biological activities in protein immobilization, 1) the optimization of the pH in the coating of a pyrogallol‐containing molecule and 2) the subsequent immobilization of proteins are required.…”

Binding enhancements of antibody functionalized natural and synthetic fibers

“…Physical adsorption may be facile, but the amount immobilized may be low, and desorption can be an issue. 6 Chemical activation may increase surface coupling but traditionally requires aggressive reagents 43 (thus, other fabrics, e.g., polyesters, are also being considered). 44,45 Enhanced protein immobilization through coatings of polymer brushes or hydrogel layers involves additional chemical steps.…”

“…[47][48][49] They do not discolor the substrate and are much lower in cost compared with polydopamine. 6,50 However, our recent work also showed that their chemical properties and the activity of proteins immobilized on them could vary depending on the substrate material. 6 In this report, we have therefore studied how the combination of poly(tannic acid) (PTA) and SNPs may modify the nal immobilized antibody activity.…”

Core‐shell structured magnetic mesoporous carbon nanospheres derived from metal‐polyphenol coordination polymer‐coated Fe3O4 and its application in the enrichment of phthalates from water samples

“…However, the high cost of dopamine may be prohibitive for the broad applications of such derived MCMs. In addition, it takes quite a long time to deposit PDA coating, typically no less than 12 h. More recent expansions of catechol chemistry‐based coatings have bred the polyphenol coating . In this respect, tannic acid (TA) is the most broadly used polyphenol due to its easy acquisition and low cost.…”