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Two sandcastle worms’ heads poke out of tubular shelters (white)the worms build, while a third worm is temporarily tube-free.

Credit: Fred Hayes, University of Utah

Home > Volume 92 Issue 33 > Worm Glue Can Seal Tissues

Volume 92 Issue 33 | p. 8 | News of The WeekIssue Date: August 18, 2014 | Web Date: August 12, 2014

Worm Glue Can Seal TissuesACS Meeting News: Worm-inspired polymer adhesive could heal ruptures in amniotic membranes

By Stu Borman

Department: Science & Technology | Collection: Life SciencesNews Channels: Materials SCENE, Biological SCENEKeywords: Meeting, sandcastle worm, fetal surgery, adhesion, glue

Sandcastle worms are pretty good chemists. Without advanceddegrees, they have figured out how to biosynthesize glue componentsthey use to build the underwater tubular shelters they call home.Inspired by the worms, Russell J. Stewart of the University of Utahand coworkers are now creating similar adhesives that might be usedto make in utero surgery safer or to block blood vessels that feedtumors.

“It’s a classic example of borrowing successfully from nature,”comments biomedical sealants specialist Jeffrey M. Karp ofBrigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston. “The Stewart group has taughtthe world how sandcastle worms achieve underwater adhesion and isnow extending these discoveries to an approach that may find manypractical solutions in medicine.”

When doctors examine or perform surgery on developing fetuses, theamniotic membranes that protect fetuses in the womb can rupture.The membranes often fail to heal, so the procedures carry asignificant risk of preterm delivery.

Existing medical adhesives fall short in addressing this surgical predicament. Some adhesives swell too much when they cure,which can cause damage to the delicate amniotic membranes. Others “are ineffective in the flexible, moist, and biochemicallyactive conditions of the human body or are acutely cyotoxic,” says Nick Aldred of Newcastle University, in England, who is anexpert on adhesives made by barnacles.

Stewart told a Division of Agricultural & Food Chemistry session at this week’s American Chemical Society national meeting thathe hopes a sandcastle-worm-inspired adhesive his group is developing will provide an effective alternative for existing adhesives.

Sandcastle worms produce highly charged polyelectrolyte glue components in different types of cells and then combine oppositelycharged components enzymatically when constructing their shelters. Obtaining the glue directly from the worms or producing itrecombinantly hasn’t proved practical. So Stewart and coworkers instead synthesize oppositely charged polyelectrolytes andcombine them to form water-immiscible polymer solutions called complex coacervates. They then apply the coacervates tobiological tissues and cross link them enzymatically to cure them into adhesives that bond to the tissues. The patented techniqueis in preclinical testing for use during fetal surgery.

The technique could also be useful for sealing blood vessels to cut off blood supply to tumors or for underwater industrial adhesiveapplications. “The fluid adhesives adhere to blood vessel walls and solidify under flow,” Stewart says.

“Not only are the glues demonstrably effective, but they seem to cause little if any immune or cytotoxic response,” Aldred said. “Inmy view, they have a lot of potential and, importantly, could be economical to produce.”

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Stewart and coworkers “have made astounding progress in quickly moving from understanding the key concepts of wet adhesionby the sandcastle worm to the point where they are able to synthesize a polymer that mimics it,” said Anne Marie Power of theNational University of Ireland, who studies barnacle wet adhesion. “It could address a real surgical problem.”

Chemical & Engineering NewsISSN 0009-2347Copyright © 2015 American Chemical Society

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Worm Glue Can Seal Tissues | August 18, 2014 Issue - Vol. 92 I... http://cen.acs.org/articles/92/i33/Worm-Glue-Seal-Tissues.html

2 of 2 6/12/15 2:01 PM