School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 6997801, Israel.
Department of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Key Laboratory for Computational Physical Sciences (MOE), Multiscale Research Institute of Complex Systems, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures (Nanjing), Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, P. R. China.
Adv Mater. 2020 Mar;32(9):e1906043. doi: 10.1002/adma.201906043. Epub 2020 Jan 27.
Self-assembled peptide hydrogels represent the realization of peptide nanotechnology into biomedical products. There is a continuous quest to identify the simplest building blocks and optimize their critical gelation concentration (CGC). Herein, a minimalistic, de novo dipeptide, Fmoc-Lys(Fmoc)-Asp, as an hydrogelator with the lowest CGC ever reported, almost fourfold lower as compared to that of a large hexadecapeptide previously described, is reported. The dipeptide self-assembles through an unusual and unprecedented two-step process as elucidated by solid-state NMR and molecular dynamics simulation. The hydrogel is cytocompatible and supports 2D/3D cell growth. Conductive composite gels composed of Fmoc-Lys(Fmoc)-Asp and a conductive polymer exhibit excellent DNA binding. Fmoc-Lys(Fmoc)-Asp exhibits the lowest CGC and highest mechanical properties when compared to a library of dipeptide analogues, thus validating the uniqueness of the molecular design which confers useful properties for various potential applications.
自组装肽水凝胶代表了将肽纳米技术转化为生物医学产品的实现。人们一直在不断探索，以确定最简单的构建块并优化其临界胶凝浓度（CGC）。本文报道了一种最小的、从头设计的二肽 Fmoc-Lys（Fmoc）-Asp，它是一种具有最低 CGC 的水凝胶形成物，比以前报道的大十六肽低近四倍。该二肽通过固态 NMR 和分子动力学模拟阐明的不寻常且前所未有的两步过程自组装。水凝胶具有细胞相容性，可支持 2D/3D 细胞生长。由 Fmoc-Lys（Fmoc）-Asp 和导电聚合物组成的导电复合凝胶表现出优异的 DNA 结合能力。与二肽类似物文库相比，Fmoc-Lys（Fmoc）-Asp 具有最低的 CGC 和最高的机械性能，从而验证了分子设计的独特性，为各种潜在应用赋予了有用的特性。
