Thermally reversible hydrogels via intramolecular folding and consequent self-assembly of a de novo designed peptide |
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Authors: | Pochan Darrin J Schneider Joel P Kretsinger Juliana Ozbas Bulent Rajagopal Karthikan Haines Lisa |
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Affiliation: | Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware, 201 DuPont Hall, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA. pochan@udel.edu |
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Abstract: | A small de novo designed peptide (MAX3) is described that exhibits complete thermoreversible self-assembly into a hydrogel network. Importantly, a prerequisite to hydrogelation is that the peptide must first fold into a conformation conducive to self-assembly. At ambient temperature, MAX3 is unfolded, resulting in a low viscosity aqueous solution. On increasing the temperature, the peptide undergoes a unimolecular folding event, affording an amphiphilic beta-hairpin that consequently self-assembles into a hydrogel network. Increasing the temperature serves to dehydrate the nonpolar residues of the unfolded peptide and trigger folding via hydrophobic collapse. Cooling the resultant hydrogel results in beta-hairpin unfolding and consequent complete dissolution of the hydrogel. The temperature at which folding and consequent self-assembly into a rigid hydrogel occur can be tuned by altering the hydrophobicity of the peptides. |
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