Entropic-elasticity-controlled dissociation and energetic-elasticity-controlled rupture induce catch-to-slip bonds in cell-adhesion molecules

Receptor-Ligand Binding: Effect of Mechanical Factors

Gaining insight into the in situ receptor-ligand binding is pivotal for revealing the molecular mechanisms underlying the physiological and pathological processes and will contribute to drug discovery and biomedical application. An important issue involved is how the receptor-ligand binding responds to mechanical stimuli. This review aims to provide an overview of the current understanding of the effect of several representative mechanical factors, such as tension, shear stress, stretch, compression, and substrate stiffness on receptor-ligand binding, wherein the biomedical implications are focused. In addition, we highlight the importance of synergistic development of experimental and computational methods for fully understanding the in situ receptor-ligand binding, and further studies should focus on the coupling effects of these mechanical factors.

Mechanochemistry of von Willebrand factor

Von Willebrand factor (VWF), a blood multimeric protein with a very high molecular weight, plays a crucial role in the primary haemostasis, the physiological process characterized by the adhesion of blood platelets to the injured vessel wall. Hydrodynamic forces are responsible for extensive conformational transitions in the VWF multimers that change their structure from a globular form to a stretched linear conformation. This feature makes this protein particularly prone to be investigated by mechanochemistry, the branch of the biophysical chemistry devoted to investigating the effects of shear forces on protein conformation. This review describes the structural elements of the VWF molecule involved in the biochemical response to shear forces. The stretched VWF conformation favors the interaction with the platelet GpIb and at the same time with ADAMTS-13, the zinc-protease that cleaves VWF in the A2 domain, limiting its prothrombotic capacity. The shear-induced conformational transitions favor also a process of self-aggregation, responsible for the formation of a spider-web like network, particularly efficient in the trapping process of flowing platelets. The investigation of the biophysical effects of shear forces on VWF conformation contributes to unraveling the molecular mechanisms of many types of thrombotic and haemorrhagic syndromes.

Catch bonding in the forced dissociation of a polymer endpoint

Applying a force to certain supramolecular bonds may initially stabilize them, manifested by a lower dissociation rate. We show that this behavior, known as catch bonding and by now broadly reported in numerous biophysics bonds, is generically expected when either or both the trapping potential and the force applied to the bond possess some degree of nonlinearity. We enumerate possible scenarios and for each identify the possibility and, if applicable, the criterion for catch bonding to occur. The effect is robustly predicted by Kramers theory and Mean First Passage Time theory and confirmed in direct molecular dynamics simulation. Among the catch scenarios, one plays out essentially any time the force on the bond originates in a polymeric object, implying that some degree of catch bond behavior is to be expected in many settings relevant to polymer network mechanics or optical tweezer experiments.

Tunable seat belt behavior in nanocomposite interfaces inspired from bacterial adhesion pili

A challenging problem in designing nanocomposites is to engineer nanoparticle interfaces that have tunable cohesive strength and rate-responsive behavior, for which inspiration can be taken from biological systems. An exemplary bio-interface is the Chaperone-Usher (CU) pili, such as type 1 expressed by bacteria Escherichia coli. The pili have unique biomechanical properties that enhance the ability of bacteria to sustain attachment to surfaces under large stresses, such as constant force extensibility, logarithmic velocity-uncoiling force dependence, and adhesive tips with catch bond behavior that exhibit longer bond life-times at greater force levels. Although biophysics of the pili under strain or stress is well-studied for anti-infective applications that aim to compromise pili adhesion, utilizing the biomechanical properties of the pili in material design applications is yet to be explored. In this work, we modeled the elongation of a single CU pilus with catch bond tip adhesin and examined its toughness response using Monte Carlo simulations. We showed that the pilus can act as a "molecular seat belt" that exhibits low toughness when pulled slowly and high toughness when pulled rapidly. Furthermore, we found that systematically varying the catch bond and shaft parameters leads to tunable seat belt behavior at the interface, where the sharpness of the transition from the low toughness to the high toughness regime and the velocity at the start of the transition can be dictated by molecular design parameters. Lastly, we tested the performance of CU pilus in slowing down a fast particle, and reveal that pili can effectively stop micron size projectiles with high initial velocities. The molecular seat belt mechanism presented here provides insight into how nanocomposite interfaces can be engineered to create molecular networks with linkers that switch on or off depending on strain rate.

Mechanochemitry: a molecular biomechanics view of mechanosensing

Molecular biomechanics includes two themes: the study of mechanical aspects of biomolecules and the study of molecular biology of the cell using mechanical tools. The two themes are interconnected for obvious reasons. The present review focuses on one of the interconnected areas-the mechanical regulation of molecular interaction and conformational change. Recent conceptual developments are summarized, including catch bonds, regulation of molecular interaction by the history of force application, and cyclic mechanical reinforcement. These studies elucidate the mechanochemistry of some of the candidate mechanosensing molecules, thereby providing a natural connection to mechanobiology.

Polymer-based catch-bonds

Catch-bonds refer to the counterintuitive notion that the average lifetime of a bond has a maximum at a nonzero applied force. They have been found in several ligand-receptor pairs and their origin is still a topic of debate. Here, we use coarse-grained simulations and kinetic theory to demonstrate that a multimeric protein, with self-interacting domain pairs, can display catch-bond behavior. Our model is motivated by one of the largest proteins in the human body, the von Willebrand Factor, which has been found to display this behavior. In particular, our model polymer consists of a series of repeating units that self-interact with their nearest neighbors along the chain. Each of the units mimics a domain of the protein. Apart from the short-range specific interaction, we also include a linker chain that will hold the domains together if unbinding occurs. This linker molecule represents the sequence of unfolded amino acids that connect contiguous domains, as is typically found in multidomain proteins. The units also interact with an immobilized ligand, but the interaction is masked by the presence of the self-interacting neighbor along the chain. Our results show that this model displays all the features of catch-bonds because the average lifetime of a binding event between the polymer and the immobilized receptor has a maximum at a nonzero pulling force of the polymer. The effects of the energy barriers for detaching the masking domain and the ligand from the binding domain, as well as the effects of the properties of the polypeptide chain connecting the contiguous domains, are also studied. Our study suggests that multimeric proteins can engage in catch-bonds if their self-interactions are carefully tuned, and this mechanism presumably plays a major role in the mechanics of extracellular proteins that share a multidomain character. Furthermore, our biomimetic design clearly shows how one could build and tune macromolecules that exhibit catch-bond characteristics.

Adhesive dynamics of lubricated films

Membrane waves have been observed near the leading edge of a motile cell. Such phenomenon is the result of the interplay between hydrodynamics and adhesive dynamics. Here we consider membrane dynamics on a thin fluid gap supported by adhesive bonds. Using coupled lubrication theory and adhesive dynamics, we derive an evolution equation to account for membrane tension, bending, adhesion, and viscous lubrication. Four adhesion scenarios are examined: no adhesion, uniform adhesion, clustered adhesion, and focal adhesion. Two contrasting traveling wave types are found, namely, tension and adhesion waves. Tension waves disperse with time and space, whereas adhesion waves show increased amplitudes and are highly persistent. We show that the transition from tension to adhesion waves depends on a necessary, but insufficient, criterion that the wave amplitude must exceed a critical gap height, which is dependent on adhesion binding probability. We also show that strong adhesion results in sharp tension-to-adhesion wave transitions. The present work could explain the strong persistence of the waves observed in adhered cells using differential inference contrast (DIC) microscopy and the observation that the wavelengths decrease shortly after leading edge retraction.