Engineered Bicomponent Adhesives with Instantaneous and Superior Adhesion Performance for Wound Sealing and Healing Applications

Surgical adhesives are playing an important role in wound repair and emergency hemostasis in clinical treatment. However, the development of strong bioglue with rapid in situ adhesion, durable adhesiveness, and flexibility in dynamic and moist physiological environments is still challenging. Herein, a new type of biosynthetic protein bioadhesives with superior adhesion performance is reported by developing a protein aldimine condensation strategy. Lysine-rich recombinant proteins are designed and massively biosynthesized to instantaneously react with aldehyde cross-linkers to realize in situ strong adhesion. The obtained bioadhesives show an ultra-high adhesion strength of approximate to 101.6 kPa on porcine skin, outperforming extant clinical bioglues. In addition, they possess super biocompatibility, flexibility, biodegradability, and compliance with the tissues. Owing to the strong and instantaneous adhesion properties, the bioadhesives are qualified for dynamic wound closure, facilitating wound repair, and noncompressible hemorrhage. Importantly, they can be industrially encapsulated into custom-made cartridge delivery tubes at low cost for clinical use. Therefore, biosynthetic bioadhesives have great potential for biological applications and are capable of scaling up to the industrial level for clinical transformation, which will be a successful paradigm for reforming existing clinical products.

Automated summary

A new type of biosynthetic protein bioadhesives with superior adhesion performance has been reported. They are designed and biosynthesized to react with aldehyde cross-linkers to achieve in situ strong adhesion. The obtained bioadhesives show ultra-high adhesion strength and possess great potential for wound closure, wound repair, and noncompressible hemorrhage treatment.