Zou Qianli, Yan Xuehai
State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
Center for Mesoscience, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
Chemistry. 2018 Jan 19;24(4):755-761. doi: 10.1002/chem.201704032. Epub 2017 Nov 28.
Self-assembly of highly important biomolecules, such as proteins and peptides, has attracted tremendous interest in supramolecular construction of functional materials. However, as proteins and peptides are often immunogenic and their structures are complex, there is a strong demand to use amino acids as simpler building blocks. Still, mimicking the sophisticated structures and functions of natural materials by self-assembly of simpler and more basic units of biomolecules, such as amino acids, remains a formidable challenge. Inspired by metal-ion-associated crystallization of l-cystine in the urinary system, amino acid coordinated self-assembly is discussed as an original strategy for supramolecular construction of biomimetic materials. The resulting materials possess the features of uniform size, hierarchical architecture, and structural resemblance to biological structures. In addition, the self-assembly process can readily be adapted to simultaneous integration of various functional modules, providing materials with promising properties for biomimetic and biomedical applications.
蛋白质和肽等极为重要的生物分子的自组装，在功能材料的超分子构建方面引起了极大的关注。然而，由于蛋白质和肽通常具有免疫原性且结构复杂，因此迫切需要使用氨基酸作为更简单的构建单元。尽管如此，通过氨基酸等更简单、更基本的生物分子单元自组装来模拟天然材料复杂的结构和功能，仍然是一项艰巨的挑战。受泌尿系统中L-胱氨酸与金属离子相关结晶的启发，氨基酸配位自组装作为一种仿生材料超分子构建的原始策略进行了讨论。所得材料具有尺寸均匀、层次结构以及与生物结构相似的结构特征。此外，自组装过程可以很容易地适应各种功能模块的同时整合，为材料提供了用于仿生和生物医学应用的有前景的特性。
