Silk fibroin produced from silkworms has been intensively utilized as a scaffold material for a variety of biotechnological applications owing to its remarkable mechanical strength, extensibility, biocompatibility, and ease of biofunctionalization. In this research, we engineered silk as a novel trap platform capable of capturing microorganisms. Specifically, we first fabricated the silk material into a silk sponge by lyophilization, yielding a 3D scaffold with porous microstructures. The sponge stability in water was significantly improved by ethanol treatment with elevated β-sheet content and crystallinity of silk. Next, we biofunctionalized the silk sponge with a poly-specific microbial targeting molecule, ApoH (apolipoprotein H), to enable a novel silk-based microbial trap. The recombinant ApoH engineered with an additional penta-tyrosine was assembled onto the silk sponge through the horseradish peroxidase (HRP) mediated dityrosine cross-linking. Last, the ApoH-decorated silk sponge was demonstrated to be functional in capturing our model microorganism targets, E. coli and norovirus-like particles. We envision that this biofabricated silk platform, capable of trapping a variety of microbial entities, could serve as a versatile scaffold for rapid isolation and enrichment of microbial samples toward future diagnostics and therapeutics. This strategy, in turn, can expedite advancing future biodevices with functionality and sustainability.

中文翻译：

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生物制造丝绸支架作为功能性微生物陷阱

由蚕生产的丝素蛋白由于其卓越的机械强度，可扩展性，生物相容性和易于生物功能化，已被广泛用作各种生物技术应用的支架材料。在这项研究中，我们将蚕丝设计为能够捕获微生物的新型捕集平台。具体来说，我们首先通过冻干将丝绸材料制成丝绸海绵，从而产生具有多孔微结构的3D支架。乙醇处理可显着改善水中的海绵稳定性，并提高β-折叠含量和丝绸的结晶度。接下来，我们用多特异性微生物靶向分子ApoH（载脂蛋白H）对丝绸海绵进行生物功能化，以实现一种新型的基于丝绸的微生物捕集器。通过辣根过氧化物酶（HRP）介导的二酪氨酸交联，将用额外的五酪氨酸改造的重组ApoH组装到丝海绵上。最后，用ApoH装饰的丝海绵被证明可以捕获我们的模型微生物靶标，大肠杆菌和诺如病毒颗粒。我们设想，这种能够捕获各种微生物实体的生物制造的丝绸平台，可以用作多功能支架，用于快速分离和富集微生物样品，以用于将来的诊断和治疗。反过来，此策略可以通过功能性和可持续性加快未来的生物设备的发展。