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    Significant Upregulation of Alzheimer's β-Amyloid Levels in a Living System Induced by Extracellular Elastin Polypeptides
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2019) Ma, Chao; Su, Juanjuan; Sun, Yao; Feng, Yang; Shen, Nolan; Li, Bo; Liang, Yingxia; Yang, Xintong; Wu, Hui; Zhang, Hongjie; Herrmann, Andreas; Tanzi, Rudolph E.; Liu, Kai; Zhang, Can
    Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder and the primary cause of age-related dementia. The etiology of AD is complex and has not been completely elucidated. Herein, we report that treatment with elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs), a component of the brain extracellular matrix (ECM), significantly increased the levels of AD-related amyloid-β peptides (Aβ) both in vitro and in vivo. Regarding the molecular mechanism(s), the upregulation of Aβ levels was related to increased proteolytic processing of the amyloid precursor protein. Furthermore, nesting tests demonstrated that the ELP-treated animals showed significant neurobehavioral deficits with cognitive impairment. These results suggest that the elastin is associated with AD-related pathological and behavioral changes. This finding presents a new aspect for Alzheimer's amyloidosis event and provides a great promise in developing ELP-based model systems to better understand the pathogenesis of AD. © 2019
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    Ultra-strong bio-glue from genetically engineered polypeptides
    ([London] : Nature Publishing Group UK, 2021) Ma, Chao; Sun, Jing; Li, Bo; Feng, Yang; Sun, Yao; Xiang, Li; Wu, Baiheng; Xiao, Lingling; Liu, Baimei; Petrovskii, Vladislav S.; Zhang, Jinrui; Wang, Zili; Li, Hongyan; Zhang, Lei; Li, Jingjing; Wang, Fan; Gӧstl, Robert; Potemkin, Igor I.; Chen, Dong; Zeng, Hongbo; Zhang, Hongjie; Liu, Kai; Herrmann, Andreas
    The development of biomedical glues is an important, yet challenging task as seemingly mutually exclusive properties need to be combined in one material, i.e. strong adhesion and adaption to remodeling processes in healing tissue. Here, we report a biocompatible and biodegradable protein-based adhesive with high adhesion strengths. The maximum strength reaches 16.5 ± 2.2 MPa on hard substrates, which is comparable to that of commercial cyanoacrylate superglue and higher than other protein-based adhesives by at least one order of magnitude. Moreover, the strong adhesion on soft tissues qualifies the adhesive as biomedical glue outperforming some commercial products. Robust mechanical properties are realized without covalent bond formation during the adhesion process. A complex consisting of cationic supercharged polypeptides and anionic aromatic surfactants with lysine to surfactant molar ratio of 1:0.9 is driven by multiple supramolecular interactions enabling such strong adhesion. We demonstrate the glue’s robust performance in vitro and in vivo for cosmetic and hemostasis applications and accelerated wound healing by comparison to surgical wound closures.