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，以其独特的纳米结构显示出独特的物理特性。在本研究中，我们设计并合成了嵌段型和接枝型等不同类型的多肽-聚合物杂化材料，将β片状可形成的寡肽与传统的合成聚合物相结合，制备出人造蜘蛛丝。这些杂化聚合物被发现在水介质中根据多肽段的氨基酸序列和环境因素自组装成蜘蛛丝状β-Sheet网络结构。这些杂化材料的溶液通过浇铸成功地获得了透明薄膜。对薄膜的高阶结构和力学性能也进行了详细的研究。

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.