Mussel-inspired peptide mimicking: An emerging strategy for surface bioengineering of medical implants

With the massive use of medical implants (e.g., metals, polymers and ceramics) in orthopedic and cardiovascular surgery, surface biomodification of these exogenous biomaterials has caused growing concern, for the purpose of improving their functions and avoiding surgical failure. Mussel-inspired chemistry (i.e., dopamine self-polymerization) based on covalent and noncovalent catechol-mediated molecular adhesion exhibits versatility in surface biomodification. However, the inevitable consumption of amino and thiol groups in the bioactive molecules still makes this robust surface chemistry in a dilemma. Taking this biomimetic strategy one step further, synthetic peptides with multiple DOPA (3,4-Dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine) units were recently extensively studied. Since the catecholic DOPA unit is abundant in the main component of mussel foot protein, these peptides are able to adhere onto various substrates. In addition, these mussel-inspired peptides could be flexibly linked with bioactive or attachable molecules, which can bypass the consumption of active groups in the second-step biomodification of poly(dopamine) method. Owing to these superiorities, mussel adhesive peptides mimics with diversified bioactivity are widely used for surface modification of medical implants to regulate different cell responses. The purpose of this review is to provide a brief overview of the latest developments in the surface bioengineering of medical implants using these mussel adhesive peptides mimics as a medium. We anticipate that the stepwise discussions from peptide mimicking and synthesis to surface bioactivity adaptation in different implants may also encourage researchers to innovate current mussel-inspired peptides at molecular level and expand their applications in the field of biomaterial engineering. © 2020 The Authors