Understanding of the interactions between nanoparticles (NPs) and biological molecules offers new possibilities in the application of nanomedicine and nanodiagnostics.  Especially, some features of nanoparticles such as size, shape, and surface functionality play a key role in these interactions. In this study, we have investigated the effect of sizes (5-60 nm) and shapes (i.e., spherical, rod, and cage) of gold NPs (AuNPs) on the self-assembly of diphenylalanine (Phe-Phe) dipeptides. In the light of our results, we found that the size of AuNPs smaller than 10 nm did not affect the self-assembly process of Phe-Phe, while bigger AuNPs (>10 nm) caused the formation of starlike peptide morphologies connected to one center. In the case of shape differences, nanorod and nanocage morphologies acted differently than spherical ones and caused the formation of densely packed, networklike dipeptide morphologies. In addition to these experiments, by combining photothermal properties of AuNPs with a Phe-Phe-based organogel having a thermo-responsive property, we also demonstrated that the degelation process of AuNPs embedded organogels may be controlled by laser illumination. Complete degelation was achieved in about 10 min. We believe that our results have a great impact and offers new possibilities for several technological applications including drug delivery, catalysis, tissue engineering, and biosensors.

Influences of size, shape and surface chemistry of gold nanoparticles on dipeptide self-assembly

247th National Meeting (2014)

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