A Nature-Inspired Coating to Keep Drugs from Breaking Down too Early
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CAPS member Dr. Jon Parquette has recently been highlighted as the senior author of a March 2020 study, Enhanced Stability of Peptide Nanofibers Coated with a Conformal Layer of Polydopamine. Dr. Parquette's work is in conjunction with CAPS' Scientific Team, Bioconversion of Plant-Based Feedstocks to Products (BPBFP).
Dr. Parquette co-authored this study with Postdoctoral Researcher Mingyang Ji, who used polydopamine, a form of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that is linked to feelings of pleasure in the brain. As a coating, polydopamine is very strong, which acts as a type of double-sided tape. Parquette and Ji predict that its further application can be used as a thin layer to protect solar panels or other materials exposed to sunlight, which can break down bonds that hold materials together.
The difference: The researchers created this coating from polydopamine, a material inspired by nature but created in a laboratory. And they used it to cover peptide nanofibers, very small chains of amino acids that are the building blocks of proteins. Peptide nanofibers are some of the building blocks of materials we use regularly, including medications, and form by a process called “self-assembly.” Think of the stack of coins: Each peptide molecule is like one coin; the entire stack itself is a peptide nanofiber. The coating makes that stack impervious to environments that could cause the stack to fall.
“Think about it like a row of coins – a stack of quarters – and the stack on its own will probably fall apart,” said Dr. Parquette. “But if you get a stack of quarters from the bank, they put a plastic coating on the stack, and that plastic coating holds all the coins together. That’s exactly what we’ve done here.”
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