Yao Ze-Fan, Lim Sujeung, Kuang Yuyao, Lundqvist Emil M, Celt Natalie, Chung Caleb O, Lee Kathryn K, Nguyen Krystal, Le Lanie, Tang Sheng Wei, Milligan Griffin M, Kohl Phillip, Sudarshan Tarunya Rao, Li Youli, Eguchi Asuka, Paravastu Anant K, Zaragoza Michael V, Fishman Dmitry A, Ardoña Herdeline Ann M
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Samueli School of Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697.
Department of Chemistry, School of Physical Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Sep 9;122(36):e2509467122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2509467122. Epub 2025 Sep 4.
Charge and energy transport within living systems are fundamental processes that enable the autonomous function of excitable cells and tissues. To date, localized control of these transport processes has been enabled by genetic modification approaches to render light sensitivity to cells. Here, we present peptidic nanoassemblies as constituents of a cardiac biomaterial platform that leverages complementary sequence interactions to direct photoinduced energy transport at the cellular interface. Photophysical characterizations and conductivity measurements confirm the occurrence of energy/charge transfer and photocurrent generation upon optical excitation in both dry and electrolytic environments. Comparing an electrostatic sequence pair against a sequence-matched donor-acceptor coassembly, we demonstrate that the sequence design with charge complementarity shows more prominent photocurrent behavior. With the flanking bioadhesive units, the primary and stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes interfaced with covalently stabilized films of the optoelectronic nanostructures exhibited material-stimulated genotypic, structural, or functional cardiac features. Collectively, our findings introduce an optoelectronic cardiac biomaterial where coassembled peptide nanostructures are molecularly designed to induce light sensitivity in excitable cells without gene modification, influencing in vitro cardiac contractile behavior and expression of cardiac markers.
生物系统中的电荷和能量传输是使可兴奋细胞和组织实现自主功能的基本过程。迄今为止，通过基因改造方法使细胞对光敏感，实现了对这些传输过程的局部控制。在此，我们展示了肽纳米组装体作为心脏生物材料平台的组成部分，该平台利用互补序列相互作用在细胞界面引导光诱导的能量传输。光物理表征和电导率测量证实，在干燥和电解环境中，光激发时均发生了能量/电荷转移和光电流产生。将静电序列对与序列匹配的供体-受体共组装体进行比较，我们证明具有电荷互补性的序列设计表现出更显著的光电流行为。借助侧翼生物粘附单元，原代和干细胞来源的心肌细胞与光电纳米结构的共价稳定膜界面接触，展现出材料刺激的基因型、结构或功能性心脏特征。总之，我们的研究结果引入了一种光电心脏生物材料，其中共组装的肽纳米结构经过分子设计，无需基因改造即可在可兴奋细胞中诱导光敏感性，影响体外心脏收缩行为和心脏标志物的表达。
