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De Novo Design of a Bolaamphiphilic Peptide with Only Natural Amino Acids
Author(s) -
Qiu Feng,
Chen Yongzhu,
Tang Chengkang,
Zhou Qinghan,
Wang Chen,
Shi YingKang,
Zhao Xiaojun
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
macromolecular bioscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.924
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1616-5195
pISSN - 1616-5187
DOI - 10.1002/mabi.200800180
Subject(s) - nanofiber , peptide , thermostability , nanorod , sonication , amino acid , nanomaterials , chemistry , nanostructure , nanotechnology , self assembly , materials science , biochemistry , chromatography , enzyme
A new self‐assembling bolaamphiphilic peptide has been designed and synthesized using only natural amino acids. This simple peptide is composed of two lysines connected by 4–8 alanines to maintain the characteristics of the traditional bolaamphiphiles. Based on an irregular secondary structure, it can self‐assemble into nanospheres, nanorods, or nanofibers with lengths up to micrometers. The long nanofibers can be broken into smaller fragments by sonication, however, they could reassemble into nanofibers after incubation. Furthermore, the nanostructures were shown to have considerable thermostability. This new bolaamphiphilic peptide differs from any other self‐assembling peptides or bolaamphiphiles, and possibly provides a new approach to fabricate nanomaterials.