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Hybrid hydrogels assembled from synthetic polymers and coiled-coil protein domains

Nature volume 397, pages 417–420 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

Stimuli-sensitive polymer hydrogels, which swell or shrink in response to changes in the environmental conditions, have been extensively investigated and used as ‘smart’ biomaterials and drug-delivery systems1, 2. Most of these responsive hydrogels are prepared from a limited number of synthetic polymers and their derivatives, such as copolymers of (meth)acrylic acid, acrylamide and N-isopropyl acrylamide3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. Water-soluble synthetic polymers have also been crosslinked with molecules of biological origin, such as oligopeptides13 and oligodeoxyribonucleotides14, or with intact native proteins15. Very often there are several factors influencing the relationship between structure and properties in these systems, making it difficult to engineer hydrogels with specified responses to particular stimuli. Here we report a hybrid hydrogel system assembled from water-soluble synthetic polymers and a well-defined protein-folding motif, the coiled coil. These hydrogels undergo temperature-induced collapse owing to the cooperative conformational transition of the coiled-coil protein domain. This system shows that well-characterized water-soluble synthetic polymers can be combined with well-defined folding motifs of proteins in hydrogels with engineered volume-change properties16, 17.

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Figure 1: Structural representation of the hybrid hydrogel primary chains and the attachment of His-tagged coiled-coil proteins.
Figure 2: The coiled coils and characterization by circular dichroism.
Figure 3: Dynamic swelling and the temperature-induced volume transition of the hybrid hydrogels in PBS.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the Center for Biopolymers at Interfaces (CBI) and the University of Utah Research Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Bioengineering and Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 84112, Utah, USA

    Chun Wang, Russell J. Stewart & JindŘich KopeČek

  2. Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 84112, Utah, USA

    JindŘich KopeČek

Authors
  1. Chun Wang
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  2. Russell J. Stewart
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  3. JindŘich KopeČek
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Correspondence to JindŘich KopeČek.

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Wang, C., Stewart, R. & KopeČek, J. Hybrid hydrogels assembled from synthetic polymers and coiled-coil protein domains. Nature 397, 417–420 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/17092

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