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Characterization of Silver and Fluorescent Dyes Incorporated in Self‐Assembling Peptides and Their Potential Applications in Biology
Author(s) -
Subbalakshmi Chivukula,
Nagaraj Ramakrishnan
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
chempluschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.801
H-Index - 61
ISSN - 2192-6506
DOI - 10.1002/cplu.201402077
Subject(s) - biomolecule , fluorescence , peptide , nanoparticle , characterization (materials science) , nanotechnology , combinatorial chemistry , chemistry , amino acid , silver nanoparticle , materials science , biochemistry , physics , quantum mechanics
Abstract There is increasing interest in studying the interaction of nanoparticles with biomolecules, microorganisms, and noble metals to explore their unique properties and potential biological applications. The synthetic butyloxycarbonyl (Boc)‐protected methyl esters of peptides composed of only aliphatic amino acids (Boc‐Ile‐Ile‐OMe and Boc‐Leu‐Ile‐Ile‐OMe) self‐assembled into nanotubes and spheres, respectively, has been previously demonstrated. Herein, the characterization of these peptide nanoparticles incorporated with silver by means of various spectrometric methods and electron microscopy imaging techniques is described. The antibacterial activity of Ag‐doped nanoparticles was determined. These peptide nanoparticles were demonstrated to be useful encapsulants of charged fluorescent dyes. This investigation demonstrates the potential of these short peptide nanoparticles to design formulations of antimicrobial agents that will enhance their activity and as fluorescent probes for cell imaging.