Bioengineered textiles with peptide binders that capture SARS-CoV-2 viral particles

Laura Navone; Kaylee Moffitt; Wayne A Johnston; Tim Mercer; Crystal Cooper; Kirsten Spann; Robert E Speight

doi:10.1038/s43246-022-00278-8

Bioengineered textiles with peptide binders that capture SARS-CoV-2 viral particles

Commun Mater. 2022;3(1):54. doi: 10.1038/s43246-022-00278-8. Epub 2022 Aug 15.

Authors

Laura Navone^{1

2}, Kaylee Moffitt¹, Wayne A Johnston^{1

2}, Tim Mercer^{3

4}, Crystal Cooper⁵, Kirsten Spann⁶, Robert E Speight^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Biology and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD 4000 Australia.
² ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD 4000 Australia.
³ Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland (UQ), Brisbane, QLD 4072 Australia.
⁴ Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, NSW 2010 Australia.
⁵ Central Analytical Research Facility (CARF), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD 4000 Australia.
⁶ Centre for Immunology and Infection Control, School of Biomedical Science, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD 4000 Australia.

Abstract

The use of personal protective equipment (PPE), face masks and ventilation are key strategies to control the transmission of respiratory viruses. However, most PPE provides physical protection that only partially prevents the transmission of viral particles. Here, we develop textiles with integrated peptide binders that capture viral particles. We fuse peptides capable of binding the receptor domain of the spike protein on the SARS-CoV-2 capsid to the cellulose-binding domain from the Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase II protein. The hybrid peptides can be attached to the cellulose fibres in cotton and capture SARS-CoV-2 viral particles with high affinity. The resulting bioengineered cotton captures 114,000 infective virus particles per cm² and reduces onwards SARS-CoV-2 infection of cells by 500-fold. The hybrid peptides could be easily modified to capture and control the spread of other infectious pathogens or for attachment to different materials. We anticipate the use of bioengineered protective textiles in PPE, facemasks, ventilation, and furnishings will provide additional protection to the airborne or fomite transmission of viruses.

Keywords: Biomaterials - proteins; Synthetic biology.