'Reverse' Hofmeister effects on the sol-gel transition rates for an α-helical peptide-PEG bioconjugate.

Autor: O'Neill SC; Department of Chemical Engineering, The City College of City University of New York, 140th Street and Convent Avenue, Steinman Hall T313, New York, New York 10031, USA. tu@ccny.cuny.edu., Kanthe AD, Weber JA, Tu RS
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP [Phys Chem Chem Phys] 2018 Aug 01; Vol. 20 (30), pp. 20287-20295.
DOI: 10.1039/c8cp03316a
Abstrakt: We examine the dynamics of the sol-gel transition for end-functionalized linear- and 4-arm-peptides bioconjugated to poly-ethylene glycol (PEG) in aqueous environments with increasingly chaotropic (Cl- < Br- < I-) anions. A 23-amino acid peptide sequence is rationally designed to self-assemble upon folding into the ordered α-helical conformation due to the hydrophobic effect. We use Attenuated Total Reflection-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) to quantify the ensemble average reversible secondary structure transitions as a function of electrolyte concentration and specific ion effects along the Hofmeister series. Subsequently, microrheology is used to quantify the kinetics of the gelation process, as it relates to folding and specific ion interactions. Our key findings were non-intuitive. We observe the faster evolution of the gel transitions in systems with more chaotropic anions. For our peptides in aqueous solution, "water-structuring" ions yield faster assembly behavior with a viscoelastic exponent, n, closer to unity representing self-assemblies that are Rouse-like. In contrast, ions that are "water-breaking" resulted in smaller viscoelastic exponents where self-assembly dynamics result in a viscoelastic exponent that suggests polymer entanglements.
Databáze: MEDLINE