Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
(A)
(B)
100 nm
FIGURE 13.4
(A) Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and (B) TEM image of a peptide nanotube.
Image credits:
[24]
.
100 nm
FIGURE 13.5
Surfactant-like peptides self-assemble to form nanotubes.
Image credits:
[12]
.
peptide nanotubes using surfactant-like peptides. These peptide nanotubes have been used as tem-
plates for growing metal nanocrystals and thus nanowires can be fabricated (
Figure 13.5
). Surface-
binding peptides can bind covalently with metal surfaces like gold (
Figure 13.6
). These peptides can
also form complexes with DNA which in turn can be bound to a metal surface.
Supramolecular self-assembly of hydrophobic dipeptides into nanotubes was later described by
Görbitz
[25]
. These peptide nanotubes can also serve as ion channels when incorporated in phospho-
lipid bilayer of the cell membrane. Biomimetic protein structures and peptide systems that can form
complexes with metals and semiconducting elements have also been reported earlier
[26]
.
Certain peptides with strong dipoles undergo drastic conformational changes between the α-helical
structure and the β-sheet
[27]
. These are called molecular switch peptides (
Figure 13.7
). Gold nanopar-
ticles can be attached to these dipolar peptides to fabricate tiny molecular switches. As described earlier,
