Peptide-directed self-assembly of hydrogels

Abstract

This review focuses on the self-assembly of macromolecules mediated by the biorecognition of peptide/protein domains. Structures forming α-helices and β-sheets have been used to mediate self-assembly into hydrogels of peptides, reactive copolymers and peptide motifs, block copolymers, and graft copolymers. Structural factors governing the self-assembly of these molecules into precisely defined three-dimensional structures (hydrogels) are reviewed. The incorporation of peptide motifs into hybrid systems, composed of synthetic and natural macromolecules, enhances design opportunities for new biomaterials when compared to individual components.

Nanomaterials in controlled drug release

“…Because peptides are synthesized from amino acids, the degradation of the peptidebased scaffolds would lead to no immune response and side effects (Kopecek and Yang 2009;Zhao et al 2010). Moreover, these reported self-assembly peptide nanofiber scaffolds are with high water content, mimicking the natural extracellular matrix, and have been shown to be useful in 3D cell culture, tissue repair, and regeneration (Collier et al 2010;EllisBehnke et al 2006a, b;Guo et al 2007;Kopecek and Yang 2009;Ling et al 2011;Zhao et al 2010). One interesting application is to engineer the peptide molecules with side chains of pharmaceutical effects (Zhao et al 2010), and the hydrogel during biological degradation will guide the drug release reactions.…”

Bioinspired Strategies for Hard Tissue Regeneration

“…Physical gels are networks held together by molecular entanglement or secondary molecular interactions. These interactions can be disrupted by changes in the environment, such as temperature, pH, ionic strength, presence of specific solutes and stress; consequently, the formation of physical hydrogels may be reversible (16). The fact that properties of a peptide domain can be imposed on the whole hybrid hydrogel suggests that the supramolecular organization of hybrid materials is driven mainly by the biorecognition of peptide segments (17).…”

“…Hydrogels are hydrophilic polymers that can retain a significant amount of water while maintaining a distinct three-dimensional structure (15,16). Based on the nature of the crosslinking, hydrogels can be categorized as chemical or physical gels.…”

Micromechanical model for protein materials: From macromolecules to macroscopic fibers

“…Such models are essential for both the comprehension of many biological (i.e., mechanotransduction and cell motility [17]) and biomedical phenomena (such as Alzheimers, type II Diabetes, Parkinsons [18]) and in the perspective of the design of new, high-performance bioinspired materials [2,13,[19][20][21][22][23][24]. Here we focus on two different classes of structural protein materials [25] known for their outstanding performances: keratinous materials, which can be found in wool, hair, cells intermediate filaments, epithelial cells and hooves and silk, a valuable material produced by spiders and silkworms.…”