Inhibition of insulin fibrillation by amphiphilic sulfonatocalixarene

Abstract

Insulin fibrillation poses a variety of problems in biomedical and biotechnological applications of insulin. Inhibiting insulin fibrillation is highly on demand to address those problems. We herein demonstrate the capability of amphiphilic sulfonatocalixarene to inhibit insulin fibrillation. The amphiphilic assembly of p-sulfonatocalix[4]arene tetra dodecyl ether exhibits much better efficiency on inhibiting insulin fibrillation, with respect to p-sulfonatocalix[4]arene and sodium dodecyl benzenesulphonate. The pronounced inhibition effect results from both the preorganized scaffold of calixarene and the amphiphilic assembly.