Molecular self-assembly mediated by noncovalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic and p-stacking interactions, provides important guidance for the construction of a new generation of biomaterials with various functions. Arising from the abundant examples of protein self-assembly existing in nature, peptide-based building blocks with the unique properties of good biocompatibility, chemical versatility and biological recognition abilities have been widely used to prepare a variety of functional biomaterials. In this paper, Zhang and co-workers designed and prepared a functional peptide sequence with membrane penetrating (eight continuous arginine residues) and tumor-targeting functions (GRGDS). Self-assembled GRGDS-based micelles loaded with the anti-tumor drug DOX and incubated with HeLa and COS-7 cells demonstrated tumor-targeting and membrane-penetrating abilities and delivered the drug into HeLa cells. The strategy reported in this study presents potential for the construction of biocompatible peptide-based biomaterials with favorable bioactivity.
Controlled peptide coated nanostructures via the self-assembly of functional peptide building blocks by Xiao-Ding Xu , Jing-Xiao Chen , Han Cheng , Xian-Zheng Zhang and Ren-Xi Zhuo Polym. Chem. 2012, 3, 2479-2486.
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