Peptidic Antifreeze Materials: Prospects and Challenges
Laboratory of Self-Organizing Soft Matter, Laboratory of Macro-Organic Chemistry, Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry & Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Post Office Box 513, 5600 MD Eindhoven, The Netherlands
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2019, 20(20), 5149; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20205149
Received: 15 September 2019
/
Revised: 5 October 2019
/
Accepted: 10 October 2019
/
Published: 17 October 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functionalised Self Assembling Peptides in Multi-Component Systems, Biomedical Materials with Added Complexity)
Necessitated by the subzero temperatures and seasonal exposure to ice, various organisms have developed a remarkably effective means to survive the harsh climate of their natural habitats. Their ice-binding (glyco)proteins keep the nucleation and growth of ice crystals in check by recognizing and binding to specific ice crystal faces, which arrests further ice growth and inhibits ice recrystallization (IRI). Inspired by the success of this adaptive strategy, various approaches have been proposed over the past decades to engineer materials that harness these cryoprotective features. In this review we discuss the prospects and challenges associated with these advances focusing in particular on peptidic antifreeze materials both identical and akin to natural ice-binding proteins (IBPs). We address the latest advances in their design, synthesis, characterization and application in preservation of biologics and foods. Particular attention is devoted to insights in structure-activity relations culminating in the synthesis of de novo peptide analogues. These are sequences that resemble but are not identical to naturally occurring IBPs. We also draw attention to impactful developments in solid-phase peptide synthesis and ‘greener’ synthesis routes, which may aid to overcome one of the major bottlenecks in the translation of this technology: unavailability of large quantities of low-cost antifreeze materials with excellent IRI activity at (sub)micromolar concentrations.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
antifreeze (glyco)proteins; peptide mimics; synthetic materials; ice recrystallization inhibition; antifreeze analogues; cryopreservation
▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Surís-Valls, R.; Voets, I.K. Peptidic Antifreeze Materials: Prospects and Challenges. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2019, 20, 5149. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20205149
AMA Style
Surís-Valls R, Voets IK. Peptidic Antifreeze Materials: Prospects and Challenges. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2019; 20(20):5149. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20205149
Chicago/Turabian StyleSurís-Valls, Romà, and Ilja K. Voets. 2019. "Peptidic Antifreeze Materials: Prospects and Challenges" International Journal of Molecular Sciences 20, no. 20: 5149. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20205149
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
