pH-responsive Frame-Guided Assembly with hydrophobicity controllable peptide as leading hydrophobic groups
Chao Wang,
Yiyang Zhang,
Yu Shao,
Xiancheng Tian,
Jiafang Piao,
Yuanchen Dong,
Dongsheng Liu
Affiliations
Chao Wang
Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Yiyang Zhang
Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Yu Shao
Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Xiancheng Tian
Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Jiafang Piao
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Colloid, Interface and Chemical Thermodynamics, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Yuanchen Dong
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Colloid, Interface and Chemical Thermodynamics, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; Corresponding authors.
Dongsheng Liu
Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Corresponding authors.
Frame-Guided Assembly (FGA) strategy has been recently reported to prepare vesicles with customized shapes and sizes. However, the effects of the interaction between leading hydrophobic groups (LHGs) and amphiphiles on the thermodynamic and kinetic control of the FGA process haven't been fully understood. In this work, we employed the pH low-insertion peptide (pHLIP) as the LHGs because its interaction with lipids could be finely tuned by pH and investigated the mechanism of FGA in detail. Our study demonstrated the peptide frames could successfully guide the assembly of lipids to form hetero-liposomes below the pH transition point owing to the strong peptide and lipids interaction. The pH-dependent kinetic controlled FGA process was proved and factors affecting the FGA process were also investigated systematically. We believe this pH-responsive FGA strategy improved our knowledge on the mechanism of the FGA and provide inspiration in understanding the sophisticated assembly behavior in life.
