The development of responsive biomaterials is of high interest due to the variety of potential applications, including in the development of electronic nanodevices. Of particular interest are dipeptide-based systems that are known to form hydrogels in response to pH, salt concentrations or solvent conditions. The peptide dyad Phe-Phe is an aromatic hydrophobic peptide known to aggregate in an ordered fashion similar to β-sheets, driven by hydrogen bonding and pi-pi stacking of the aromatic side chains. As an extension to Phe-Phe based systems, we have conjugated guanosine to the N-terminus of the Phe-Phe dipeptide, which is capable of hydrogen bonding with other guanosine molecules. Characterization of the self-assembled nucleopeptide supramolecular structures will provide a better understanding of the intermolecular interactions present in the assembly. Building off of the previous laboratory studies in which the C-terminus of the peptide was an amide, the dipeptide was synthesized using Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis and cleaved from the resin leaving a carboxylic acid C-terminus. The ionizable carboxylic acid enhances the pH responsiveness of the assemblies, making the system a good candidate for further hydrogelation studies using Infrared Spectroscopy (IR), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Electronic Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS).

Characterization of hydrogelating nucleopeptides

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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