Limpid hydrogels from β-turn motif-connected tandem repeats of Aβ16-22

Soft Matter. 2019 Jun 19;15(24):4827-4835. doi: 10.1039/c9sm00343f.

Abstract

Self-assembling peptides constitute an important class of functional biomaterials. A number of short amyloidogenic stretches have been identified from amyloid proteins. Such peptides, as such or through subtle modifications, can turn out to be promising candidates for functional biomaterials. End-capped Aβ16-22, the well-studied amyloidogenic stretch from β-amyloid, is reported to be non-hydrogelating up to 20 mM concentration. Here we investigated the hydrogelation propensity of Aβ16-22 repeats connected through β-turn-supporting motifs. The peptide repeats connected through Asn-Gly, Aib-DPro, and DPro-Gly formed transparent hydrogels at concentrations ≥2 mM. The repeats of the aromatic analog Aβ16-22(F20Y) also resulted in similar hydrogels. Like other peptide-based gels reported earlier, these gels could trap the anticancer drug doxorubicin and displayed steady release in water. In addition, the gels supported the growth of mammalian cell lines, HEK-293 and RIN-5F. These data show that turn-inducing motifs can have marked effects on the hydrogelating propensity of self-assembling peptides.

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Motifs
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / chemistry*
  • Animals
  • Cell Culture Techniques / instrumentation
  • Cell Culture Techniques / methods
  • Circular Dichroism
  • Doxorubicin / pharmacokinetics*
  • Drug Carriers / chemistry
  • Drug Carriers / pharmacokinetics*
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Humans
  • Hydrogels / chemistry*
  • Insulin / genetics
  • Microscopy, Atomic Force
  • Pancreas / cytology
  • Peptide Fragments / chemistry*
  • Rats
  • Repetitive Sequences, Amino Acid
  • Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • Drug Carriers
  • Hydrogels
  • Insulin
  • Peptide Fragments
  • amyloid beta-protein (16-22)
  • Doxorubicin