The conjugation of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) to small peptides for generating multifunctional supramolecular nanofibers/hydrogels

• Jiayang Li,
• Yi Kuang,
• Junfeng Shi,
• Yuan Gao,
• Jie Zhou and
• Bing Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2013, 9, 908–917, doi:10.3762/bjoc.9.104

• are excellent candidates to promote aromatic–aromatic interaction in water to form hydrogels, this work contributes to the development of functional molecules that have dual or multiple roles and ultimately may lead to new molecular hydrogels of therapeutic agents for topical use. Keywords: self

• solution of 4a becomes a stable semitransparent hydrogel (Figure 1H) after standing at room temperature and pH 7.2 overnight. Despite its thermal reversibility, 4a shows weak recovery properties. Compound 5a fails to form a hydrogel, likely due to the insufficient aromatic–aromatic interaction originating

• form a hydrogel. The hydrogels of 1g and 3g shrink within 30 min after hydrogelation and tend to precipitate at room temperature over 24 h, indicating poor stability of the hydrogels of 1g and 3g. This result further confirms the critical role of aromatic–aromatic interaction for stabilizing molecular

Exceptionally small supramolecular hydrogelators based on aromatic–aromatic interactions

• Junfeng Shi,
• Yuan Gao,
• Zhimou Yang and
• Bing Xu

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2011, 7, 167–172, doi:10.3762/bjoc.7.23

• /bjoc.7.23 Abstract We report herein the use of an aromatic–aromatic interaction to produce small molecule hydrogelators that self-assemble in water and form molecular nanofibers in the resulting hydrogels. Among these hydrogelators, a hydrogelator (6) made from a phenylalanine and a cinnamoyl group

• properties. Notably, compound 6 can undergo cis/trans-isomerization upon UV irradiation. Keywords: aromatic–aromatic interaction; cinnamoyl; hydrogel; hydrogelator; supramolecular; Introduction Gels formed by three-dimensional, elastic networks to encapsulate a liquid [1], have many useful properties (e.g