Development of novel peptide-polymer hybrids for the design of artificial spider silk

蜘蛛丝蛋白是一种自组装的生物聚合物，基于其独特的纳米结构显示出特殊的物理特性。在本研究中，我们设计并合成了各种类型的肽-聚合物杂化物，如嵌段型和接枝型，其中β-片层可形成的寡肽被掺入到常规的合成聚合物中，以产生人工蜘蛛丝。这些杂化聚合物在水溶液中可以根据肽结构域的氨基酸序列和环境因素自组装成蜘蛛丝样的β-折叠网络结构。通过从这些杂化物的溶液浇铸成功地获得透明膜。对薄膜的高级结构和力学性能进行了详细的研究。

Spider silk protein is a self-assembling biopolymer and shows exceptional physical characteristics based on its unique nanostructure. In this study, we designed and synthesized various types of peptide-polymer hybrids such as block-type and graft-type, at which β-sheet-formable oligopeptides were incorporated into conventional synthetic polymers, to create artificial spider silk. These hybrid polymers were found to self-assemble into spider silk-like β-sheet network structure in aqueous media depending on the amino acid sequences of peptide domains and environmental factors. Transparent films were successfully obtained by casting from solutions of these hybrids. The higher order structures and mechanical properties of these films were also examined in detail.