Yuan Chengqian, Fan Wei, Zhou Peng, Xing Ruirui, Cao Shuai, Yan Xuehai
State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Biopharmaceutical Preparation and Delivery, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
School of Chemical Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Nat Nanotechnol. 2024 Dec;19(12):1840-1848. doi: 10.1038/s41565-024-01766-3. Epub 2024 Aug 26.
Biomolecule-based non-covalent glasses are biocompatible and biodegradable, and offer a sustainable alternative to conventional glass. Cyclic peptides (CPs) can serve as promising glass formers owing to their structural rigidity and resistance to enzymatic degradation. However, their potent crystallization tendency hinders their potential in glass construction. Here we engineered a series of CP glasses with tunable glass transition behaviours by modulating the conformational complexity of CP clusters. By incorporating multicomponent CPs, the formation of high-entropy CP glass is facilitated, which-in turn-inhibits the crystallization of individual CPs. The high-entropy CP glass demonstrates enhanced mechanical properties and enzyme tolerance compared with individual CP glass and a unique biorecycling capability that is unattainable by traditional glasses. These findings provide a promising paradigm for the design and development of stable non-covalent glasses based on naturally derived biomolecules, and advance their application in pharmaceutical formulations and smart functional materials.
基于生物分子的非共价玻璃具有生物相容性和可生物降解性，为传统玻璃提供了一种可持续的替代方案。环肽（CPs）由于其结构刚性和抗酶降解性，可作为有前景的玻璃形成剂。然而，它们强烈的结晶倾向阻碍了其在玻璃构建中的潜力。在此，我们通过调节CP簇的构象复杂性，设计了一系列具有可调玻璃化转变行为的CP玻璃。通过引入多组分CPs，促进了高熵CP玻璃的形成，进而抑制了单个CPs的结晶。与单个CP玻璃相比，高熵CP玻璃表现出增强的机械性能和酶耐受性，以及传统玻璃所无法实现的独特生物循环能力。这些发现为基于天然衍生生物分子的稳定非共价玻璃的设计和开发提供了一个有前景的范例，并推动了它们在药物制剂和智能功能材料中的应用。
