State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
School of Life Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
Biomacromolecules. 2024 Apr 8;25(4):2520-2530. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.4c00033. Epub 2024 Mar 25.
The construction of collagen mimetic peptides has been a hot topic in tissue engineering due to their attractive advantages, such as virus-free nature and low immunogenicity. However, all of the reported self-assembled peptides rely on the inclusion of risky elements of potential safety concerns or lack the capability of incorporating critical functional motifs. A versatile self-assembly design of pure synthetic peptides that can mimic the collagen structure and function remains an insurmountably challenging target. We have herein created a type of triblock peptide consisting of a central triple helical block and N-terminal/C-terminal blocks with oppositely charged amino acids. Favorable electrostatic interactions between the two terminal blocks have been demonstrated to trigger the triblock peptides to form collagen-like nanofibers with a distinct D-banding pattern. A length of 3 or above charged amino acid pairs as well as the maintenance of the triple helical conformation are required for the self-assembly of triblock peptides. Notably, integrin and discoidin domain receptor (DDR) binding sequences GFOGER and GVMGFO have been well demonstrated as vivid examples of convenient incorporation of functional motifs into the triblock peptides without interfering with their self-assembly. These triblock peptides provide a robust and versatile strategy to create next-generation peptide-based biomaterials that can recapitulate the structure and function of collagen, which have promising applications in the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
胶原模拟肽的构建一直是组织工程领域的热门话题，因为它们具有吸引人的优势，如无病毒性质和低免疫原性。然而，所有报道的自组装肽都依赖于包含潜在安全问题的危险元素，或者缺乏纳入关键功能基序的能力。能够模拟胶原结构和功能的纯合成肽的多功能自组装设计仍然是一个难以逾越的挑战目标。我们在此创建了一种由中心三螺旋块和带相反电荷氨基酸的 N 端/C 端块组成的三嵌段肽。两个末端块之间有利的静电相互作用已被证明可以触发三嵌段肽形成具有明显 D 带图案的胶原样纳米纤维。三嵌段肽的自组装需要 3 个或更多带电荷的氨基酸对的长度和保持三螺旋构象。值得注意的是，整合素和盘状结构域受体（DDR）结合序列 GFOGER 和 GVMGFO 已被很好地证明是将功能基序方便地纳入三嵌段肽而不干扰其自组装的生动示例。这些三嵌段肽为创建能够模拟胶原结构和功能的下一代基于肽的生物材料提供了一种强大而通用的策略，它们在组织工程和再生医学领域有很有前景的应用。
