title: Engineering Protein Hydrogels Using SpyCatcher-SpyTag Chemistry.
abstract: Constructing hydrogels from engineered proteins has attracted significant attention within the material sciences, owing to their myriad potential applications in biomedical engineering. Developing efficient methods to cross-link tailored protein building blocks into hydrogels with desirable mechanical, physical, and functional properties is of paramount importance. By making use of the recently developed SpyCatcher-SpyTag chemistry, we successfully engineered protein hydrogels on the basis of engineered tandem modular elastomeric proteins. Our resultant protein hydrogels are soft but stable, and show excellent biocompatibility. As the first step, we tested the use of these hydrogels as a drug carrier, as well as in encapsulating human lung fibroblast cells. Our results demonstrate the robustness of the SpyCatcher-SpyTag chemistry, even when the SpyTag (or SpyCatcher) is flanked by folded globular domains. These results demonstrate that SpyCatcher-SpyTag chemistry can be used to engineer protein hydrogels from tandem modular elastomeric proteins that can find applications in tissue engineering, in fundamental mechano-biological studies, and as a controlled drug release vehicle.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of British Columbia , 2036 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1, Canada.
authors.forename: Xiaoye
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of British Columbia , 2036 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1, Canada.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructure, Department of Physics, Nanjing University , Nanjing 210093, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of British Columbia , 2036 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1, Canada.
authors.forename: Linglan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of British Columbia , 2036 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1, Canada.
authors.forename: Hongbin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008168:Lung / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D015202:Protein Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D020100:Hydrogels; D011506:Proteins