Self-Assembly Combining Two Bioactive Peptide-Amphiphile Molecules into Nanofibers by Electrostatic Attraction
- 23 May 2003
- journal article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in Journal of the American Chemical Society
- Vol. 125 (24), 7146-7147
- https://doi.org/10.1021/ja028215r
Abstract
We describe a new approach to peptide-amphiphile (PA) nanofiber preparation that allows PAs with different bioactive amino acid sequences to be combined into a single fiber. Oppositely charged PAs are synthesized separately and then mixed to produce gels of nanofiber networks at physiological pH. Transmission electron microscopy reveals the formation of fibers approximately 7 nm in diameter and several micrometers long in these dimeric systems. On the basis of NMR and microscopy, we suggest that these nanofibers are cylindrical micelles of mixed composition, formed due to electrostatic attraction between the oppositely charged PAs. This strategy for self-assembly may be useful in cell therapies that can be implemented without invasive surgery or in in vitro tissue engineering.Keywords
This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- Peptide-amphiphile nanofibers: A versatile scaffold for the preparation of self-assembling materialsProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2002
- Self-Assembly and Mineralization of Peptide-Amphiphile NanofibersScience, 2001
- Self-Assembly of a β-Sheet Protein Governed by Relief of Electrostatic Repulsion Relative to van der Waals AttractionBiomacromolecules, 2000
- Synergistic stimulation of DNA synthesis by bradykinin and vasopressin in swiss 3T3 cellsJournal of Cellular Physiology, 1994
- Functional domains of cell adhesion moleculesCurrent Opinion in Cell Biology, 1992
- Contact and adhesive specificities in the associations, migrations, and targeting of cells and axonsCell, 1992
- Cell attachment activity of fibronectin can be duplicated by small synthetic fragments of the moleculeNature, 1984