A Versatile Surface Bioengineering Strategy Based on Mussel-Inspired and Bioclickable Peptide Mimic

In this work, we present a versatile surface engineering strategy by the combination of mussel adhesive peptide mimicking and bioorthogonal click chemistry. The main idea reflected in this work derived from a novel mussel-inspired peptide mimic with a bioclickable azide group (i.e., DOPA(4)-azide). Similar to the adhesion mechanism of the mussel foot protein (i.e., covalent/noncovalent comediated surface adhesion), the bioinspired and bioclickable peptide mimic DOPA(4)-azide enables stable binding on a broad range of materials, such as metallic, inorganic, and organic polymer substrates. In addition to the material universality, the azide residues of DOPA(4)-azide are also capable of a specific conjugation of dibenzylcyclooctyne- (DBCO-) modified bioactive ligands through bioorthogonal click reaction in a second step. To demonstrate the applicability of this strategy for diversified biofunctionalization, we bioorthogonally conjugated several typical bioactive molecules with DBCO functionalization on different substrates to fabricate functional surfaces which fulfil essential requirements of biomedically used implants. For instance, antibiofouling, antibacterial, and antithrombogenic properties could be easily applied to the relevant biomaterial surfaces, by grafting antifouling polymer, antibacterial peptide, and NO-generating catalyst, respectively. Overall, the novel surface bioengineering strategy has shown broad applicability for both the types of substrate materials and the expected biofunctionalities. Conceivably, the “clean” molecular modification of bioorthogonal chemistry and the universality of mussel-inspired surface adhesion may synergically provide a versatile surface bioengineering strategy for a wide range of biomedical materials.