Coassembly Generates Peptide Hydrogel with Wound Dressing Material Properties

Chaitanya Kumar Thota; Allison A Berger; Laura Elomaa; Chaunxiong Nie; Christoph Böttcher; Beate Koksch

doi:10.1021/acsomega.9b04371

Coassembly Generates Peptide Hydrogel with Wound Dressing Material Properties

ACS Omega. 2020 Apr 7;5(15):8557-8563. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.9b04371. eCollection 2020 Apr 21.

Authors

Chaitanya Kumar Thota¹, Allison A Berger¹, Laura Elomaa¹, Chaunxiong Nie¹, Christoph Böttcher², Beate Koksch¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Takustrasse 3, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
² Research Center for Electron Microscopy, Freie Universität Berlin, Fabeckstrasse 36a, 14195 Berlin, Germany.

Abstract

Multicomponent self-assembly of peptides is a powerful strategy to fabricate novel functional materials with synergetic properties that can be used for several nanobiotechnological applications. In the present study, we used a coassembly strategy to generate an injectable ultrashort bioactive peptide hydrogel formed by mixing a dipeptide hydrogelator with a macrophage attracting short chemotactic peptide ligand. Coassembly does not impede hydrogelation as shown by cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM), scanning electron microscopy, and rheology. Biocompatibility was shown by cytotoxicity assays and confocal microscopy. The hydrogels release the entrapped skin antibiotic ciprofloxacin, among others, in a slow and continuous manner. Such bioinspired advanced functional materials can find applications as wound dressing materials to treat chronic wound conditions like diabetic foot ulcer.