Self-assembled RGD dehydropeptide hydrogels for drug delivery applications

Vilaça, H., Castro, T., Costa, F. M. G., Melle-Franco, M., Hilliou, L., Hamley, I. W. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4549-0926, Castanheira, E. M. S., Martins, J. A. and Ferreira, P. M. T. (2017) Self-assembled RGD dehydropeptide hydrogels for drug delivery applications. Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 5 (43). pp. 8607-8617. ISSN 0959-9428 doi: 10.1039/c7tb01883e

Abstract/Summary

Peptide-based self-assembled hydrogels have triggered remarkable research interest in recent years owing to their biocompatibility and biomimetic properties and responsiveness, which warrant many technological and biomedical applications. Dehydrodipeptides N-capped with naproxen emerged from our research as effective hydrogelators endowed with resistance to proteolysis. Dehydrodipeptide-based hydrogels are promising nanocarriers for drug delivery applications. In this work, we demonstrate that dehydrodipetide Npx-L-Ala-Z-ΔPhe-OH can be deployed as a minimalist hydrogelator module for synthesizing a gelating construct Npx-L-Ala-Z-ΔPhe-G-R-G-D-G-OH bearing a GRGDG adhesion motif. The self-assembly of the peptide construct and the drug delivery properties of the hydrogel were studied in this work. The peptide construct showed no toxicity towards a fibroblast cell line expressing the αvβ3 integrin. Docking studies suggest that the hydrogelator block does not interfere with the recognition of the RGD motif by the integrin receptor. The self-assembly seems to be directed by intermolecular naphthalene π–π stacking interactions, with the peptide backbone assuming a random coil conformation both in solution and in the gel phase. TEM and STEM imaging revealed that the hydrogel is made of entangled bundles of long thin fibres (width circa 23 nm). The hydrogel exhibits viscoelastic properties, thermo-reversibility and recovery after mechanical fluidization. FRET studies showed that curcumin incorporated into the hydrogel interacts non-covalently with the hydrogel fibrils. Delivery of curcumin from the hydrogel into Nile red loaded model membranes (SUVs) was demonstrated by FRET. Naproxen N-capped dehydrodipeptides are efficacious minimalist hydrogelator modules for obtaining hydrogels functionalized with peptide ligands for cell receptors. These hydrogels are potential nanocarriers for drug delivery.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/73467
Identification Number/DOI	10.1039/c7tb01883e
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy > Department of Chemistry
Uncontrolled Keywords	General Materials Science, General Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering, General Medicine
Publisher	Royal Society of Chemistry
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