Progress in Self-assembling Peptide-based Nanomaterials for Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Self-assembled peptide nanomaterials display the advantageous properties of injectability, biodegradability and biocompatibility. These peptide nanomaterials, by self-assembling, can be widely applied in such fields as drug delivery (small molecules and large molecules), regenerative medicine and nanobiotechnology. In this review, we mainly discuss the properties of these peptide nanomaterials in their physical, chemical and biological aspects. Also discussed are recent advances in their potential applications as drug delivery systems and for uses in regenerative medicine. These current advances show a bright future for the development and clinical applications of self-assembled peptide-based nanotechnology and nanomedicine. However, there are still some big challenges for us to face before these peptide nanomaterials eventually can be used for the treatment of human diseases.

Ultrashort Peptide Self-Assembly: Front-Runners to Transport Drug and Gene Cargos

“…Uncomplicated to design and synthesize, biocompatible, embedded with appropriate opportunities for chemical alterations, demonstrating molecular selectivity and specific interaction with diverse types of biological systems-all these characteristics make peptides ideal and flexible candidates for constructing tuneable nanostructures with normal end functionalization Yu et al, 2016;Galdiero and Gomes, 2017) (Figure 1). It is hypothesized that simple amino acids may be the first catalysts for formation of peptide bonds (Luisi, 2015).…”

Study on the Materials Formed by Self‐Assembling Hydrophobic, Aromatic Peptides Dedicated to Be Used for Regenerative Medicine

“…Several nanomaterials formed by self-assembled peptides are promising scaffolds for tissue engineering. [7] Amphiphilic peptides [8][9][10] containing repeated units of positively and negatively charged domains separated by neutral, hydrophobic fragments has been found useful for regenerative medicine. The presence of alternative hydrophilic and hydrophobic fragments strongly promotes the process of selfassembling leading to highly ordered supramolecules.…”

SAPdb: A database of nanostructures formed by self-assembly of short peptides

“…Peptides have been reported as key players in diverse fields like immunotherapeutic [1][2][3][4][5][6][7], disease biomarkers [8][9][10], antibacterial [11][12][13][14][15], antiviral [16][17][18][19][20], anticancer [21][22][23][24][25], antiparasitic [26][27][28][29][30], antihypertensive [31][32][33] drugs owing to their properties such as cell-penetration [34], stability [35][36][37] and low toxicity [38,39]. Besides these areas, peptides are rapidly gaining the attention of researchers in the field of nanobiotechnology [40][41][42][43] by virtue of their property to self-assembly into well-defined nanostructures. Advantages of self-assembled short peptides for use as nanomaterial relative to conventional materials include simple structure, fast and low-cost synthesis, better chemical and physical stability, diversity in morphology, ease of synthesis in large quantities.…”