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Title: Self‐assembling Peptides with Internal Ionizable Unnatural Amino Acids: A General Approach to pH‐responsive Peptide Materials

Journal Article · · Chemistry - An Asian Journal
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  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry The University of Texas at Arlington 701 S Nedderman Dr Arlington 76019 TX USA
  2. Department of Bioengineering The University of Texas at Arlington 701 S Nedderman Dr 76019 TX Arlington USA
  3. Department of Biophysics The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center 5323 Harry Hines Blvd. 75390 TX Dallas USA

Abstract Self‐assembled peptides are an emerging family of biomaterials that show great promise for a range of biomedical and biotechnological applications. Introducing and tuning the pH‐responsiveness of the assembly is highly desirable for improving their biological activities. Inspired by proteins with internal ionizable residues, we report a simple but effective approach to constructing pH‐responsive peptide assembly containing unnatural ionic amino acids with an aliphatic tertiary amine side chain. Through a combined experimental and computational investigation, we demonstrate that these residues can be accommodated and stabilized within the internal hydrophobic compartment of the peptide assembly. The hydrophobic microenvironment shifts their pK a significantly from a basic pH typically found for free amines to a more biologically relevant pH in the weakly acidic range. The pH‐induced ionization and ionization‐dependent self‐assembly and disassembly are thoroughly investigated and correlated with the biological activity of the assembly. This new approach has unique advantages in tuning the pH‐responsiveness of self‐assembled peptides across a large pH range in a complex biological environment. We anticipate the ionizable amino acids developed here can be widely applicable to the synthesis and self‐assembly of many amphiphilic peptides with endowed pH‐responsive properties to enhance their biological activities toward applications ranging from targeted therapeutic delivery to proton transport.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
1885088
Journal Information:
Chemistry - An Asian Journal, Journal Name: Chemistry - An Asian Journal Vol. 17 Journal Issue: 19; ISSN 1861-4728
Publisher:
Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English

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