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Diphenylalanine Motif Drives Self‐Assembling in Hybrid PNA‐Peptide Conjugates
Author(s) -
Diaferia Carlo,
Avitabile Concetta,
Leone Marilisa,
Gallo Enrico,
Saviano Michele,
Accardo Antonella,
Romanelli Alessandra
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.202102481
Subject(s) - nucleic acid , dimer , supramolecular chemistry , chemistry , hydrogen bond , peptide , self assembly , molecule , combinatorial chemistry , conjugate , structural motif , peptide nucleic acid , stereochemistry , organic chemistry , biochemistry , mathematical analysis , mathematics
Abstract Peptides and nucleic acids can self‐assemble to give supramolecular structures that find application in different fields, ranging from the delivery of drugs to the obtainment of materials endowed with optical properties. Forces that stabilize the “suprastructures” typically are hydrogen bonds or aromatic interactions; in case of nucleic acids, Watson‐Crick pairing drives self‐assembly while, in case of peptides, backbone hydrogen bonds and interactions between aromatic side chains trigger the formation of structures, such as nanotubes or ribbons. Molecules containing both aromatic peptides and nucleic acids could in principle exploit different forces to self‐assemble. In this work we meant to investigate the self‐assembly of mixed systems, with the aim to understand which forces play a major role and determine formation/structure of aggregates. We therefore synthesized conjugates of the peptide FF to the peptide nucleic acid dimer “gc” and characterized their aggregates by different spectroscopic techniques, including NMR, CD and fluorescence.