Small peptides capable of assembling into well-defined nanostructures have attracted extensive attention due to their interesting applications as biomaterials. This work reports the first example of a pillararene functionalized with a guanidiniocarbonyl pyrrole (GCP)-conjugated short peptide segment. The obtained amphiphilic peptide 1 spontaneously self-assembles into a supramolecular β-sheet in aqueous solution based on host-guest interaction between pillararene and GCP unit as well as hydrogen-bonding between the peptide strands. Interestingly, peptide 1 at low concentration shows transitions from small particles to "pearl necklace" assemblies, and finally to branched fibers in a time-dependent process. At higher concentration, it directly assembles into twisted β-sheet tapes. Notably, without pillararene moiety, the control peptide A forms α-helix structure with morphology changing from particles to bamboo-like assemblies depending on concentration, indicating a significant role of the pillararene-GCP host-guest interaction for the secondary structure formation. Moreover, peptide 1 can serve as an efficient gene transfection vector.
Keywords: host-guest interaction; peptides; pillararene; self-assembly; supramolecular chemistry.
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