Dendritic Peptide Nanostructures Formed from Self-Assembly of Di-l-phenylalanine Extracted from Alzheimer’s β-Amyloid Poly Peptides: Insights into Their Assembly Process

Abstract

This paper presents formation of a new class of dendritic peptide nanostructures from self-assembly of diphenylalanine extracted from Alzheimer’s β-amyloid polypeptide. Effects of different substrates e.g. glass, silicon and gold on morphology of dendritic nanostructures have been studied by means of AFM and FESEM. Furthermore, formation of self-assembled structures in solution has been characterized in terms of dimensions of nanotubes via Zetasizer. The results showed formation of highly ordered dendritic multi-branched structures spread on glass in which diameter of each tubular structure varies from 200 to 800 nm. Silicon substrates promoted aggregation with less dendrite characteristics. Individual nanotubes were formed on gold solid substrates. The growth of nucleation points was accelerated via spin casting. In solution, however, the diameter size showed an average of 296 nm after 1 day of self-assembly. A mechanism is proposed to explain tree-like growth of FF dendritic nanostructures. Our approach offers a biomaterial which proves highly useful for a broad range of application from drug delivery to nanofabrication techniques.