Diffusion-Limited Aggregation with Polygon Particles

Diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) assumes that particles perform pure random walk at a finite temperature and aggregate when they come close enough and stick together. Although it is well known that DLA in two dimensions results in a ramified fractal structure, how the particle shape influences the formed morphology is still unclear. In this work, we perform the off-lattice two-dimensional DLA simulations with different particle shapes of triangle, quadrangle, pentagon, hexagon, and octagon, respectively, and compare with the results for circular particles. Our results indicate that different particle shapes only change the local structure, but have no effects on the global structure of the formed fractal cluster. The local compactness decreases as the number of polygon edges increases.     

Modulation of intra- and inter-sheet interactions in short peptide self-assembly by acetonitrile in aqueous solution

Besides our previous experimental discovery(Zhao Y R, et al. 2015 Langmuir, 31, 12975) that acetonitrile(ACN)can tune the morphological features of nanostructures self-assembled by short peptides KIIIIK(KI4K) in aqueous solution,further experiments reported in this work demonstrate that ACN can also tune the mass of the self-assembled nanostructures.To understand the microscopic mechanism how ACN molecules interfere peptide self-assembly process, we conducted a series of molecular dynamics simulations on a monomer, a cross-β sheet structure, and a proto-fibril of KI4 K in pure water, pure ACN, and ACN-water mixtures, respectively. The simulation results indicate that ACN enhances the intra-sheet interaction dominated by the hydrogen bonding(H-bonding) interactions between peptide backbones, but weakens the inter-sheet interaction dominated by the interactions between hydrophobic side chains. Through analyzing the correlations between different groups of solvent and peptides and the solvent behaviors around the proto-fibril, we have found that both the polar and nonpolar groups of ACN play significant roles in causing the opposite effects on intermolecular interactions among peptides. The weaker correlation of the polar group of ACN than water molecule with the peptide backbone enhances H-bonding interactions between peptides in the proto-fibril. The stronger correlation of the nonpolar group of ACN than water molecule with the peptide side chain leads to the accumulation of ACN molecules around the proto-fibril with their hydrophilic groups exposed to water, which in turn allows more water molecules close to the proto-fibril surface and weakens the inter-sheet interactions. The two opposite effects caused by ACN form a microscopic mechanism clearly explaining our experimental observations.     

Anisotropic formation mechanism and nanomechanics for the self-assembly process of cross-β peptides

Nanostructures self-assembled by cross-β peptides with ordered structures and advantageous mechanical properties have many potential applications in biomaterials and nanotechnologies. Quantifying the intra-and inter-molecular driving forces for peptide self-assembly at the atomistic level is essential for understanding the formation mechanism and nanomechanics of various morphologies of self-assembled peptides. We investigate the thermodynamics of the intra-and inter-sheet structure formations in the self-assembly process of cross-β peptide KIIIIK by means of steered molecular dynamics simulation combined with umbrella sampling. It is found that the mechanical properties of the intra-and inter-sheet structures are highly anisotropic with their intermolecular bond stiffness at the temperature of 300 K being 5.58 N/m and0.32 N/m, respectively. This mechanical anisotropy comes from the fact that the intra-sheet structure is stabilized by enthalpy but the inter-sheet structure is stabilized by entropy. Moreover, the formation process of KIIIIK intra-sheet structure is cooperatively driven by the van der Waals(VDW) interaction between the hydrophobic side chains and the electrostatic interaction between the hydrophilic backbones, but that of the inter-sheet structure is primarily driven by the VDW interaction between the hydrophobic side chains. Although only peptide KIIIIK is studied, the qualitative conclusions on the formation mechanism should also apply to other cross-β peptides.     

Hierarchical processes in β-sheet peptide self-assembly from the microscopic to the mesoscopic level

Under appropriate physicochemical conditions, short peptide fragments and their synthetic mimics have been shown to form elongated cross-β nanostructures through self-assembly. The self-assembly process and the resultant peptide nanostructures are not only related to neurodegenerative diseases but also provide inspiration for the development of novel bionanomaterials. Both experimental and theoretical studies on peptide self-assembly have shown that the self-assembly process spans multiple time and length scales and is hierarchical. β-sheet self-assembly consists of three sub-processes from the microscopic to the mesoscopic level: β-sheet locking, lateral stacking, and morphological transformation. Detailed atomistic simulation studies have provided insight into the early stages of peptide nanostructure formation and the interplay between different non-covalent interactions at the microscopic level. This review gives a brief introduction of the hierarchical peptide self-assembly process and focuses on the roles of various non-covalent interactions in the sub-processes based on recent simulation, experimental, and theoretical studies.