Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: The self-assembly of amphiphilic peptides is reviewed. The review covers surfactant-like peptides with amphiphilicity arising from the sequence of natural amino acids, and also peptide amphiphiles (PAs) in which lipid chains are attached to hydrophilic peptide sequences containing charged residues. The influence of the secondary structure on the self-assembled structure and vice versa is discussed. For surfactant-like peptides structures including fibrils, nanotubes, micelles and vesicles have been reported. A particularly common motif for PAs is β-sheet based fibrils, although other structures have been observed. In these structures, the peptide epitope is presented at the surface of the nanostructure, providing remarkable bioactivity. Recent discoveries of potential, and actual, applications of these materials in biomedicine and bionanotechnology are discussed.
Source: Soft Matter
DOI: 10.1039/c0sm01218a
Author: I. W. Hamley
Institutions: Diamond Light Source, University of Reading
Language: English
Subfield: Biomaterials
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1976915573