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Antifouling performance of d-enantiomers-based peptide-modified aluminum alloy surfaces with enhanced stability against proteolytic degradation

  • Metals & corrosion
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Abstract

Marine biofouling presents a significant challenge to the sustainable development of the maritime industry. Antimicrobial peptide (AMP) offers a promising strategy to combat biofouling. However, the inherent susceptibility of natural AMPs composed of L-amino acids to proteolytic degradation limits their practical application. This study investigated the stability of peptides containing d-amino acids against proteolytic degradation and evaluated their antifouling performance through the modification of aluminum-based surfaces with these peptides. d-peptides exhibited remarkable stability compared to the l-peptides counterpart when exposed to pepsin. Furthermore, the surfaces modified with d-peptides displayed excellent antifouling capacity by significantly inhibiting the adhesion of Bacillus sp. (58.6%) and E. coli (88.7%), the comparable effects observed with l-peptides (61.7%) and (87.5%), respectively. Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations and scanning electron microscopy results analyses revealed that immobilized d-peptides effectively disrupted bacterial cell membranes, thereby preventing bacterial adhesion. This research provided a viable approach to enhance the stability of peptides against proteolytic degradation while maintaining outstanding antifouling performance, contributing to the development of effective strategies for antifouling in the maritime industry.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52071246) and Innovation and Development Joint Fund Key Project of Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation (2022CFD029).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Transportation and Logistics Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430063, China

    Tong Lou, **uqin Bai, **aoyan He, Zongcheng Yang & Chengqing Yuan

  2. State Key Laboratory of Maritime Technology and Safety, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430063, China

    Tong Lou, **uqin Bai, **aoyan He, Wencheng Liu, Zongcheng Yang & Chengqing Yuan

  3. National Engineering Research Center for Water Transport Safety, Reliability Engineering Institute, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430063, China

    Tong Lou, **uqin Bai, **aoyan He, Wencheng Liu, Zongcheng Yang & Chengqing Yuan

  4. Hubei Longzhong Laboratory, **angyang, 441000, Hubei, China

    **uqin Bai & **aoyan He

  5. School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering, Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK

    Ying Yang

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  1. Tong Lou
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Contributions

TL involved in conceptualization, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, investigation, original draft and review and editing; XB involved in review and editing, supervision and funding acquisition; XH involved in review and editing and supervision; WL involved in methodology and validation; ZY involved in methodology and validation; YY involved in review and editing; CY involved in review and editing and supervision.

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Correspondence to **uqin Bai.

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Lou, T., Bai, X., He, X. et al. Antifouling performance of d-enantiomers-based peptide-modified aluminum alloy surfaces with enhanced stability against proteolytic degradation. J Mater Sci 58, 15499–15512 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-08960-z

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