High Throughput Screening of Glycopolymers: Balance between Cytotoxicity and Antibacterial Property

Applied machine learning as a driver for polymeric biomaterials design

Polymers are ubiquitous to almost every aspect of modern society and their use in medical products is similarly pervasive. Despite this, the diversity in commercial polymers used in medicine is stunningly low. Considerable time and resources have been extended over the years towards the development of new polymeric biomaterials which address unmet needs left by the current generation of medical-grade polymers. Machine learning (ML) presents an unprecedented opportunity in this field to bypass the need for trial-and-error synthesis, thus reducing the time and resources invested into new discoveries critical for advancing medical treatments. Current efforts pioneering applied ML in polymer design have employed combinatorial and high throughput experimental design to address data availability concerns. However, the lack of available and standardized characterization of parameters relevant to medicine, including degradation time and biocompatibility, represents a nearly insurmountable obstacle to ML-aided design of biomaterials. Herein, we identify a gap at the intersection of applied ML and biomedical polymer design, highlight current works at this junction more broadly and provide an outlook on challenges and future directions.

Glycopolymers for Antibacterial and Antiviral Applications

Diseases induced by bacterial and viral infections are common occurrences in our daily life, and the main prevention and treatment strategies are vaccination and taking antibacterial/antiviral drugs. However, vaccines can only be used for specific viral infections, and the abuse of antibacterial/antiviral drugs will create multi-drug-resistant bacteria and viruses. Therefore, it is necessary to develop more targeted prevention and treatment methods against bacteria and viruses. Proteins on the surface of bacteria and viruses can specifically bind to sugar, so glycopolymers can be used as potential antibacterial and antiviral drugs. In this review, the research of glycopolymers for bacterial/viral detection/inhibition and antibacterial/antiviral applications in recent years are summarized.

Preparation of CO2 -based Cationic Polycarbonate/Polyacrylonitrile Nanofibers with an Optimal Fibrous Microstructure for Antibacterial Applications

Utilizing CO₂ as one of the monomer resource, poly(vinylcyclohexene carbonates) (PVCHCs) are used as the precursor for preparing cationic PVCHCs (CPVCHCs) via thiol-ene click functionalization. Through the functionalization, CPVCHC-43 with a tertiary amine density of 43% relative to the backbone is able to display a significantly antibacterial ability against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). Blending CPVCHC-43 with polyacrylonitrile (PAN), CPVCHC/PAN nanofiber meshes (NFMs) have been successfully prepared by electrospinning. More importantly, two crucial fibrous structural factors including CPVCHC/PAN weight ratio and fiber diameter have been systematically investigated for the effects on the antibacterial performance of the NFMs. Sequentially, a quaternization treatment has been employed on the NFMs with an optimal fibrous structure to enhance the antibacterial ability. The resulting quaternized NFMs have demonstrated the great biocidal effects against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Moreover, the excellent biocompatibility of the quaternized NFMs have also been thoroughly evaluated and verified. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Materiomically Designed Polymeric Vehicles for Nucleic Acids: Quo Vadis?

Despite rapid advances in molecular biology, particularly in site-specific genome editing technologies, such as CRISPR/Cas9 and base editing, financial and logistical challenges hinder a broad population from accessing and benefiting from gene therapy. To improve the affordability and scalability of gene therapy, we need to deploy chemically defined, economical, and scalable materials, such as synthetic polymers. For polymers to deliver nucleic acids efficaciously to targeted cells, they must optimally combine design attributes, such as architecture, length, composition, spatial distribution of monomers, basicity, hydrophilic-hydrophobic phase balance, or protonation degree. Designing polymeric vectors for specific nucleic acid payloads is a multivariate optimization problem wherein even minuscule deviations from the optimum are poorly tolerated. To explore the multivariate polymer design space rapidly, efficiently, and fruitfully, we must integrate parallelized polymer synthesis, high-throughput biological screening, and statistical modeling. Although materiomics approaches promise to streamline polymeric vector development, several methodological ambiguities must be resolved. For instance, establishing a flexible polymer ontology that accommodates recent synthetic advances, enforcing uniform polymer characterization and data reporting standards, and implementing multiplexed in vitro and in vivo screening studies require considerable planning, coordination, and effort. This contribution will acquaint readers with the challenges associated with materiomics approaches to polymeric gene delivery and offers guidelines for overcoming these challenges. Here, we summarize recent developments in combinatorial polymer synthesis, high-throughput screening of polymeric vectors, omics-based approaches to polymer design, barcoding schemes for pooled in vitro and in vivo screening, and identify materiomics-inspired research directions that will realize the long-unfulfilled clinical potential of polymeric carriers in gene therapy.

Facile Preparation of a Glycopolymer Library by PET-RAFT Polymerization for Screening the Polymer Structures of GM1 Mimics

Commercialized oligosaccharides such as GM1 are useful for biological applications but generally expensive. Thus, facile access to an effective alternative is desired. Glycopolymers displaying both carbohydrate and hydrophobic units are promising materials as alternatives to oligosaccharides. Prediction of the appropriate polymer structure as an oligosaccharide mimic is difficult, and screening of the many candidates (glycopolymer library) is required. However, repeating polymerization manipulation for each polymer sample to prepare the glycopolymer library is time-consuming. Herein, we report a facile preparation of the glycopolymer library of GM1 mimics by photoinduced electron/energy transfer-reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (PET-RAFT) polymerization. Glycopolymers displaying galactose units were synthesized in various ratios of hydrophobic acrylamide derivatives. The synthesized glycopolymers were immobilized on a gold surface, and the interactions with cholera toxin B subunits (CTB) were analyzed using surface plasmon resonance imaging (SPRI). The screening by SPRI revealed the correlation between the log P values of the hydrophobic monomers and the interactions of the glycopolymers with CTB, and the appropriate polymer structure as a GM1 mimic was determined. The combination of the one-time preparation and the fast screening of the glycopolymer library provides a new strategy to access the synthetic materials for critical biomolecular recognition.

A High Throughput Approach for Designing Polymers That Mimic the TRAIL Protein

We have leveraged a high throughput approach to design a fully synthetic polymer mimic of the chemotherapeutic protein "TRAIL". Our design enables the synthesis of libraries of star-shaped polymers presenting exactly one receptor binding peptide at the end of each arm with no purification steps. Clear structure-activity relationships in screening for receptor binding and the apoptotic activity on colon cancer lines (COLO205) led us to identify trivalent structures, ∼1.5 nm in hydrodynamic radius as the best mimics. These showed IC₅₀ values ∼2 μM and resulted in the elevated levels of caspase-8 expected from this mechanism of cell death. Our results demonstrate the potential for HTP screening methods to be used in the design of polymers that can mimic a whole range of complex therapeutic proteins.

Antibacterial, wearable, transparent tannic acid-thioctic acid-phytic acid hydrogel for adhesive bandages

Making a hydrogel-based first-aid bandage with green resources, desirable biocompatibility, universal adhesive properties, low cost and simple production is a long-standing research aspiration. Considering this, three naturally existing organic acids, namely tannic acid, thioctic acid and phytic acid, were used to construct a novel adhesive gel (TATAPA hydrogel) for epidermal tissue bandage applications. This hydrogel could be synthesized under mild conditions with no need for a freeze-thawing shaping procedure, and was transparent, moldable and stretchable with good stability under continuous water immersion. In lap-shear tests, the TATAPA hydrogel could adhere to various hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces. Moreover, in the case of skin tissue adhesion, the hydrogel could be easily peeled off from the skin, meeting wearability requirements. Rheological tests showed that the hydrogel possessed thermal sensitive properties derived from multi-supramolecular interactions. The methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)-infected burn wound test demonstrated that the hydrogel had desirable antibacterial activity and was beneficial for wound healing. A femoral artery bleeding assay was also used to reveal that the TATAPA hydrogel could be directly pasted onto the bleeding site for hemostasis. Overall, this hydrogel demonstrates potential as a surgical bioadhesive for a broad range of medical applications.

Synthetic Sugar-Only Polymers with Double-Shoulder Task: Bioactivity and Imaging

The search for novel fluorescent materials has attracted the attention of many researchers. Numerous bioimaging materials based on the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) units have been surging and could be employed in wide areas during the past two decades. In recent few years, the appearance of nonconventional fluorescence emitters without aromatic conjugated structures provides another bioimaging candidate which has the advantage of enhanced biodegradability and relatively low cost, and their luminescent mechanism can be explained by clustering-triggered emission (CTE) like AIE. In our contribution, we utilize nonaromatic sugar as a monomer to prepare a series of glycopolymers with designed components through sunlight-induced reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization; these glycopolymers can be employed in bioimaging fields due to the bioactivity coming from sugar and CTE capacity.

From poly(vinylimidazole) to cationic glycopolymers and glyco-particles: effective antibacterial agents with enhanced biocompatibility and selectivity

Cationic glycopolymers have attracted great attention as a new type of antibacterial material.

Aqueous broadband photopolymerization on microreactor arrays: from high throughput polymerization to fabricating artificial cells

Microreactor arrays combining ZnO and polyaniline are fabricated onto the bottom of multi-well plates to catalyze broadband sunlight-driven open-to-air polymerization in aqueous media.

Plant Antimicrobial Peptides as Potential Tool for Topic Treatment of Hidradenitis Suppurativa

Among chronic skin autoinflammatory diseases, Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) stands out for its chronicity, highly variable condition, and profound impact on the patients' quality of life. HS is characterized by suppurative skin lesions in diverse body areas, including deep-seated painful nodules, abscesses, draining sinus, and bridged scars, among others, with typical topography. To date, HS is considered a refractory disease and medical treatments aim to reduce the incidence, the infection, and the pain of the lesions. For this purpose, different classes of drugs, including anti-inflammatory molecules, antibiotics and biological drugs are being used. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), also called defense peptides, emerge as a new class of therapeutic compounds, with broad-spectrum antimicrobial action, in addition to reports on their anti-inflammatory, healing, and immunomodulating activity. Such peptides are present in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, as part of the innate eukaryotic immune system. It has been proposed that a deregulation in the expression of AMPs in human epithelial tissues of HS patients may be associated with the etiology of this skin disease. In this scenario, plant AMPs stand out for their richness, diversity of types, and broad antimicrobial effects, with potential application for topical systemic use in patients affected by HS.

Screening of a glycopolymer library for GM1 mimetics synthesized by the "carbohydrate module method"

The "carbohydrate module method" is a promising approach for oligosaccharide mimetics using polymeric materials. However, it is difficult to predict the optimal structure for a particular oligosaccharide mimetic, and an efficient strategy for the synthesis and evaluation of glycopolymers is desirable. In this study, a screening of glycopolymers for the "carbohydrate module method" by a combination of photoinduced electron/energy transfer-reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (PET-RAFT) polymerization and surface plasmon resonance imaging (SPRI) is demonstrated. The facile and fast screening of synthetic glycomimetics was achieved, and the glycopolymer with the optimal structure as a GM1 mimetic strongly interacted with the cholera toxin B subunit.

A sulfonate-based polypeptide toward infection-resistant coatings

Multifunctional coatings have gained significant attention for their promising potential to address the issue of medical device-related infections. However, they usually have multiple components in one layer which decreases the density of functional groups on surfaces and hence reduces the biological properties. Herein, we report a mono-component and sulfonate-based anionic polypeptide coating with on-demand antibacterial activity, antifouling property, and biocompatibility. The anionic polypeptide was prepared by ring-opening polymerization of L-cysteine-based N-carboxyanhydride (NCA) with allyl groups and a subsequent thiol-ene reaction to incorporate the sulfonate pendants. It adopted a 17.1-19.5% β-sheet conformation and self-assembled into a spherical nanoparticle. The polypeptide coating showed excellent in vitro antibacterial activity against both Gram-positive (i.e., S. aureus) and Gram-negative bacteria (i.e., E. coli) with >99% killing efficacy after acidic solution treatment and prominent antifouling property and biocompatibility after weak base treatment. An in vivo study revealed that the sulfonate-based polypeptide-coated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) exhibited good anti-infection property and histocompatibility.

Carbohydrate-Based Macromolecular Biomaterials

Carbohydrates are the most abundant and one of the most important biomacromolecules in Nature. Except for energy-related compounds, carbohydrates can be roughly divided into two categories: Carbohydrates as matter and carbohydrates as information. As matter, carbohydrates are abundantly present in the extracellular matrix of animals and cell walls of various plants, bacteria, fungi, etc., serving as scaffolds. Some commonly found polysaccharides are featured as biocompatible materials with controllable rigidity and functionality, forming polymeric biomaterials which are widely used in drug delivery, tissue engineering, etc. As information, carbohydrates are usually referred to the glycans from glycoproteins, glycolipids, and proteoglycans, which bind to proteins or other carbohydrates, thereby meditating the cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. These glycans could be simplified as synthetic glycopolymers, glycolipids, and glycoproteins, which could be afforded through polymerization, multistep synthesis, or a semisynthetic strategy. The information role of carbohydrates can be demonstrated not only as targeting reagents but also as immune antigens and adjuvants. The latter are also included in this review as they are always in a macromolecular formulation. In this review, we intend to provide a relatively comprehensive summary of carbohydrate-based macromolecular biomaterials since 2010 while emphasizing the fundamental understanding to guide the rational design of biomaterials. Carbohydrate-based macromolecules on the basis of their resources and chemical structures will be discussed, including naturally occurring polysaccharides, naturally derived synthetic polysaccharides, glycopolymers/glycodendrimers, supramolecular glycopolymers, and synthetic glycolipids/glycoproteins. Multiscale structure-function relationships in several major application areas, including delivery systems, tissue engineering, and immunology, will be detailed. We hope this review will provide valuable information for the development of carbohydrate-based macromolecular biomaterials and build a bridge between the carbohydrates as matter and the carbohydrates as information to promote new biomaterial design in the near future.

Atomic-engineering Au-Ag nanoalloys for screening antimicrobial agents with low toxicity towards mammalian cells

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have shown potent antibacterial activity against numerous bacteria strains. However, their toxicity against mammalian cells is still a big challenge, limiting their in vivo applications. Here, we found that alloying Ag and Au in an atomic level to form Au-Ag nanoalloys (NAs) could effectively reduce the cytotoxicity of AgNPs, and the antimicrobial activity of NAs could be well maintained by tuning the composition of Ag. By means of a facile and robust laser-based technique, which involves the laser ablation of metal films toward water (LATW), we fabricated a series of Au-Ag NAs with different elemental compositions. Precise control over the compositions of Au and Ag was achieved via adjusting the thickness ratio of ablated Au/Ag films. Following the systematic examinations of these NAs on their antibacterial performance and the toxicity against the normal mammalian cells, we found that significant bactericidal effect with negligible cytotoxicity could be achieved with the NAs bearing 40 % of Au and 60 % Ag. Furthermore, Au-Ag NAs displayed a lower cytotoxicity than their corresponding monometallic NP mixtures due to the decreased Ag⁺ release from alloying structures of Au-Ag. This work showed the great potential of Au-Ag NAs in in vivo applications to fight against bacterial infections.

Automation and data-driven design of polymer therapeutics

Polymers are uniquely suited for drug delivery and biomaterial applications due to tunable structural parameters such as length, composition, architecture, and valency. To facilitate designs, researchers may explore combinatorial libraries in a high throughput fashion to correlate structure to function. However, traditional polymerization reactions including controlled living radical polymerization (CLRP) and ring-opening polymerization (ROP) require inert reaction conditions and extensive expertise to implement. With the advent of air-tolerance and automation, several polymerization techniques are now compatible with well plates and can be carried out at the benchtop, making high throughput synthesis and high throughput screening (HTS) possible. To avoid HTS pitfalls often described as "fishing expeditions," it is crucial to employ intelligent and big data approaches to maximize experimental efficiency. This is where the disruptive technologies of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) will likely play a role. In fact, ML and AI are already impacting small molecule drug discovery and showing signs of emerging in drug delivery. In this review, we present state-of-the-art research in drug delivery, gene delivery, antimicrobial polymers, and bioactive polymers alongside data-driven developments in drug design and organic synthesis. From this insight, important lessons are revealed for the polymer therapeutics community including the value of a closed loop design-build-test-learn workflow. This is an exciting time as researchers will gain the ability to fully explore the polymer structural landscape and establish quantitative structure-property relationships (QSPRs) with biological significance.

New Light in Polymer Science: Photoinduced Reversible Addition-Fragmentation Chain Transfer Polymerization (PET-RAFT) as Innovative Strategy for the Synthesis of Advanced Materials

Photochemistry has attracted great interest in the last decades in the field of polymer and material science for the synthesis of innovative materials. The merging of photochemistry and reversible-deactivation radical polymerizations (RDRP) provides good reaction control and can simplify elaborate reaction protocols. These advantages open the doors to multidisciplinary fields going from composite materials to bio-applications. Photoinduced Electron/Energy Transfer Reversible Addition-Fragmentation Chain-Transfer (PET-RAFT) polymerization, proposed for the first time in 2014, presents significant advantages compared to other photochemical techniques in terms of applicability, cost, and sustainability. This review has the aim of providing to the readers the basic knowledge of PET-RAFT polymerization and explores the new possibilities that this innovative technique offers in terms of industrial applications, new materials production, and green conditions.

Recent Progress in Bile Acid-Based Antimicrobials

With the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria and the formation of biofilms by bacteria and fungi, microbial infections gradually threaten global health. Natural antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have low susceptibility for developing resistance due to the membrane targeted mechanism, but instability and high manufacturing cost limit their applications in clinic. Bile acids, a group of steroids in the human body, with high stability, biocompatibility, and inherent facial amphiphilic structure similar to the characteristics of AMPs, have been applied to the biological field, such as drug delivery systems, self-healing hydrogels, antimicrobials, and so on. In this review, we mainly focus on the different classes of bile acid-based antimicrobials in recent years. Various designs and methods for the preparation of unimolecular antimicrobials with bile acid skeletons are first introduced, including coupling of primary amine, quaternary ammonium, and amino acid units with bile acid skeletons. Some representative oligomeric antimicrobials, including dimers of bile acids, are summarized. Finally, macromolecular antimicrobials bearing some positive charges at the main chain or side chain and interaction mechanisms of these bile acid-based antimicrobials are discussed.

Synthesis and Biopharmaceutical Applications of Sugar-Based Polymers: New Advances and Future Prospects

The rapid rise in research interest in carbohydrate-based polymers is undoubtedly due to the nontoxic nature of such materials in an in vivo environment and the versatile roles that the polymers can play in cellular functions. Such polymers have served as therapeutic tools for drug delivery, including antigens, proteins, and genes, as well as diagnostic devices. Our focus in the first half of this Review is on synthetic methods based on ring-opening polymerization and enzyme-catalyzed polymerization, along with controlled radical polymerization. In the second half of this Review, sugar-based polymers are discussed on the basis of their remarkable success in competitive receptor binding, as multifunctional nanocarriers of targeting inhibitors for cancer treatment, in genome-editing delivery, in immunotherapy based on endogenous antibody recruitment, and in treatment of respiratory diseases, including influenza A. Particular emphasis is put on the synthesis and biopharmaceutical applications of sugar-based polymers published in the most recent 5 years. A noticeable attribute of carbohydrate-based polymers is that the sugar-receptor interactions can be facilitated by the cooperative effect of multiple sugar units. Their diversified topology and structures will drive the development of new synthetic strategies and bring about important applications, including coronavirus-related drug therapy.

Red wine-inspired tannic acid-KH561 copolymer: its adhesive properties and its application in wound healing

Damaged tissue with an open wound is one of the daily injuries and can have different levels of severity. Inspired by the textile dyeing, coloration and skin care effect of pyrogallol-rich red wine, tannic acid-KH561 (TA561) copolymer was fabricated by phenol-silanol reaction and polycondensation of silane in an aqueous medium under mild conditions. This copolymer could undergo sol-gel transition via continuous heating or when simply placed at room temperature, during which liquid TA561 oligomers connected with each other to form solid TA561 as a bulk resin or thin film. Combining the advantages of the polyphenols and polysiloxane, TA561 can be used as an adhesive for multiple surfaces, including wood, polytetrafluoroethylene, poly(vinyl chloride), aluminum chips and silicon rubber. Furthermore, TA561 also possessed reducing activity towards Ag+ or Au3+ ions to form the corresponding nanoparticles. An in vivo antimicrobial ability test indicated that TA561 could promote wound healing and showed resistance to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection in comparison with KH561. Indeed, TA561 has the potential to be utilized as a low-cost, green bioadhesive material for skin preparations.

Polymerization in Shear Flow: From Bowl-Shaped Glyco-Microcarriers to Self-Propelled Micromotors

We report a simple and effective method to synthesize composite bowl-shaped colloidal particles composed of a magnetic bottom and polymer wall. The bowl-shape is determined by the stirring and the resulting centrifugal force acting on the components during the synthesis. By systematically varying the stirring speed, we have found the lower and upper bounds for the bowl formation. Moreover, the size and thickness of the bowl can be tuned by changing the amount of the TPM monomer during synthesis. Functional groups can be easily introduced in the solidifying step through the polymerization of TPM by adding initiators and functional monomers. For example, by copolymerization of glycomonomer with TPM, bowl-shaped particles with biological activity can be obtained. In addition, such composite particles can be further modified to produce micromotors with well-controlled motions.

Photothermal bactericidal surfaces: killing bacteria using light instead of biocides

Recent developments of photothermal bactericidal surfaces based on immobilized photothermal agents to kill bacteria through hyperthermia effects are reviewed.

Effects of Stereochemistry and Hydrogen Bonding on Glycopolymer-Amyloid-β Interactions

Saccharide stereochemistry plays an important role in carbohydrate functions such as biological recognition processes and protein binding. Synthetic glycopolymers with pendant saccharides of controlled stereochemistry provide an attractive approach for the design of polysaccharide-inspired biomaterials. Acrylamide-based polymers containing either β,d-glucose or β,d-galactose pendant groups, designed to mimic GM1 ganglioside saccharides, and their small-molecule analogues were used to evaluate the effect of stereochemistry on glycopolymer solution aggregation processes alone and in the presence of Aβ42 peptide using dynamic light scattering, gel permeation chromatography-multiangle laser light scattering, and fluorescence assays. Fourier transform infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) were employed to determine hydrogen bonding patterns of the systems. The galactose-containing polymer displayed significant intramolecular hydrogen bonding and self-aggregation and minimal association with Aβ42, while the glucose-containing glycopolymers showed intermolecular interactions with the surrounding environment and association with Aβ42. Saturation transfer difference NMR spectroscopy demonstrated different binding affinities for the two glycopolymers to Aβ42 peptide.

Universal Antifogging and Antimicrobial Thin Coating Based on Dopamine-Containing Glycopolymers

A novel strategy for preparing universal antifogging and antimicrobial coating is reported by the means of one-step coating and Ag nanoparticle (AgNP) formation in situ. A series of hydrophilic glycopolymers including poly(N-3,4-dihydroxybenzenethyl methacrylamide-co-2-deoxy-2-(methacrylamido)glucopyranose) (P1s) and poly(N-3,4-dihydroxybenzenethyl methacrylamide-co-methacrylic acid-co-2-deoxy-2-(methacrylamido)glucopyranose) (P2s) were synthesized by sunlight-induced reverse addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. With the ability to strongly immobilize onto organic and inorganic surfaces (i.e., glass slide, silicon wafer, and polycarbonate) via catechol groups, P1s are very convenient to form superhydrophilic and transparent thin coatings, which result in a unique antifogging property. Additionally, the antimicrobial property is realized by in situ AgNPs forming P2 coatings, facilitated by the presence of carboxyl groups and catechol groups in the polymer chain, rendering it superior antimicrobial activity against both Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus microorganisms. This antifogging and antimicrobial thin coating shows strong prospects in medical and optical devices, with the extra benefits of avoiding potential pathogen infection in vitro or while in storage.

Advances in biomolecule inspired polymeric material decorated interfaces for biological applications

With the development of surface modification technology, interface properties have great effects on the interaction between biomedical materials and cells and biomolecules, which significantly affects the biocompatibility and functionality of materials. As an orderly and perfect system, biological organisms in nature effectively integrate all kinds of bio-interfaces with physiological functions, which shed light on the importance of biomolecules in organisms. It gives birth to a bio-inspiration strategy to design and fabricate smart materials with specific functionalities, e.g. osteogenic and chondrocytic induced materials inspired by bone sialoprotein and chondroitin sulfate. Through this mimicking approach, various functional materials were utilized to decorate the interfaces and further optimize the performance of biomedical materials, which would widely expand their applications. In this review, followed by a summary and brief introduction of surface modification methods, we highlight recent advances in the fabrication of functional polymeric materials inspired by a range of biomolecules for decorating interfaces. Then, the other applications of biomolecule inspired materials including tissue engineering, diagnosis and treatment of diseases and physiological function regulation are presented and the future outlook is discussed as well.

Enzyme-Responsive Ag Nanoparticle Assemblies in Targeting Antibacterial against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus

The abuse of antibiotics resulted in the emergence of antibiotics-resistant bacteria, which has raised a great social concern together with the impetus to develop effective antibacterial materials. Herein, the synthesis of biocompatible enzyme-responsive Ag nanoparticle assemblies (ANAs) and their application in the high-efficiency targeted antimicrobial treatment of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have been demonstrated. The ANAs could collapse and undergo stable/collapsed transition on approaching MRSA because of the serine protease-like B enzyme proteins (SplB)-triggered decomposition of the branched copolymers which have been employed as the macrotemplate in the synthesis of responsive ANAs. This transition contributed greatly to the high targeting affinity and efficiency of ANAs to MRSA. The minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration against MRSA were 2.0 and 32.0 μg mL^-1, respectively. Skin wound healing experiments confirmed that the responsive ANAs could serve as an effective wound dressing to accelerate the healing of MRSA infection.

Facile and scalable synthesis of topologically nanoengineered polypeptides with excellent antimicrobial activities

A facile and scalable strategy for the quick library synthesis of linear-, hinged-, star-, and cyclic-polypeptides with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity has been reported.

Tyrosine based cationic acrylates as potent antimicrobial agents against shigellosis

Design of tyrosine-based cationic polymers with antimicrobial activities.

A cocktail of vitamins for aqueous RAFT polymerization in an open-to-air microtiter plate

We report a highly biocompatible photoinitiation strategy based on Vitamin B₂ and Vitamin C. This two-component photoinitiator enables RAFT polymerization to be conducted in high throughput in an open-to-air microtiter plate.