Biomimetic nucleoporin hydrogel for molecules’ selective permeation

초록

The natural selective filtering systems (extracellular matrix, nuclear pores, and mucus) selectively and efficiently separate molecules with low energy input. Nuclear pore, as an example, regulates protein transport into the nucleus with the help of mesh-like hydrogel, called nucleoporin. The dense nucleoporin network rejects large molecules more than 5 nm by its network pore size. Interestingly, the nucleoporin sometimes allow the transportation of molecules, which is larger than nucleoporin’s network pore. The driving force here is the specific binding affinity between nucleoporin and transporting molecules, which overcomes entropic repulsion. Based on detailed understanding of transport mechanisms and regulating two main factors involve in selective separation (entropic repulsion and binding affinity) the gels for recognition and selective permeation (GRASP) was engineered to promote selective permeation of target molecules dominantly. The designed GRASP successfully rejected non-specific polyclonal antibodies, whereas allowed monoclonal antibodies specifically. The degree of permeation was also controllable by the managing dissociation constant of epitope. Thus, the rationally designed nucleoporin-inspired hydrogels gives us a way of tuning permeability and selectivity of biomolecules for filtering and separation technologies.