A minimalistic tetrapeptide amphiphile scaffold for transmembrane pores with a preference for sodium.

Synthetic channels or pores that are easy to synthesize, stable and cation-selective are extremely attractive for the development of therapeutics and materials. Herein, we report a pore developed from a small tetrapeptide scaffold that shows a preference for sodium over lithium/potassium. The sodium selectivity is attributed to the appended oligoether tail at the C-terminus. A peptide dimer is proposed as the predominant cation-transporting pore. Such pyridine containing stable pores can be potentially utilized for the pH modulated ion transport.