Chengkun Zhao, Xing Li, Xiaowen Han, Zhulian Li, Shaoquan Bian, Weinan Zeng, Mingming Ding, Jie Liang, Qing Jiang, Zongke Zhou, Yujiang Fan, Xingdong Zhang, Yong Sun
The assembly of oligopeptide and polypeptide molecules can reconstruct various ordered advanced structures through intermolecular interactions to achieve protein-like biofunction. Here, we develop a "molecular velcro"-inspired peptide and gelatin co-assembly strategy, in which amphiphilic supramolecular tripeptides are attached to the molecular chain of gelatin methacryloyl via intra-/intermolecular interactions. We perform molecular docking and dynamics simulations to demonstrate the feasibility of this strategy and reveal the advanced structural transition of the co-assembled hydrogel, which brings more ordered β-sheet content and 10-fold or more compressive strength improvement...
February 19, 2024: Nature Communications