Thrombosis is one of the biggest obstacles in the clinical application of small-diameter tissue-engineered blood vessels (TEBVs). The implantation of an unmodified TEBV will lead to platelet aggregation and further activation of the coagulation cascade, in which the high concentration of adenosine diphosphate (ADP) that is released by platelets plays an important role. A research paper published in ACS Nano reported a reduced graphene oxide (RGO) based dual-enzyme biomimetic cascade to successively convert ADP into adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and AMP into adenosine. The enzymes were linked to RGO via the amphipathic molecule DSPE-PEG2000-COOH (Nanosoft Polymers). The strong hydrophobic force between the DSPE chain and hydrophobic RGO tightly immobilized DSPE-PEG2000-COOH on the surface of the RGO, and the hydrophilic PEG chain provided the RGO with good water dispersibility and biocompatibility. The experimental results demonstrate that the two enzymes can synergistically catalyze procoagulant ADP into anticoagulant AMP and adenosine successively under physiological conditions, thus reducing the concentration of ADP. ACS Nano. 2017 Nov 28;11(11):10964-10973. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.7b04836. Epub 2017 Oct 20.
