A 3D-polyphenylalanine network inside porous alumina: Synthesis and characterization of an inorganic–organic composite membrane

• Jonathan Stott and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 938–951, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.78

• Fores et al. The authors realized peptide hydrogels in a porous melamine foam for use in continuous flow chemistry [30]. Other polyelectrolytes such as poly(acrylic acid) were prepared using an ozone-induced grafting process for cellulose fibers [31]. Hydrophobic foams of poly(γ-benzyl-ʟ-glutamate-co-ʟ

• , respectively [64]. Whereas the amide A mode is assigned to an intermolecular hydrogen-bonded NH stretching vibration, the amide B band is due to the "free" NH stretching vibration and amide II to the NH bending motion of the peptide bond. Schultz et al. demonstrated a correlation between the amide I band (C=O

Key for crossing the BBB with nanoparticles: the rational design

• Sonia M. Lombardo,
• Marc Schneider,
• Akif E. Türeli and
• Nazende Günday Türeli

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 866–883, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.72

• cyanoacrylate) (PBCA) nanoparticles developed by Kreuter et al. in 1995. They enabled the successful delivery of the antinociceptive peptide dalargin in vivo [24]. Since then, numerous nanoparticle systems have been studied and optimized for brain delivery of small molecules and peptides [25]. Most of them are

• high, leading to similar transcytosis efficiency as RMT [45][46]. AMT occurs through electrostatic interaction between a positively charged molecule, protein or peptide and the negatively charged luminal membrane of the brain endothelial cells. This process depends on energy, time and concentration and

• . The first reported nanoparticle system able to cross the BBB in vivo was developed by Kreuter and co-workers [24]. In their study, PBCA nanoparticles coated with polysorbate 80 (PS80) were able to successfully deliver dalargin, an antinociceptive peptide unable to cross the BBB by itself. A

Identification of physicochemical properties that modulate nanoparticle aggregation in blood

• Ludovica Soddu,
• Duong N. Trinh,
• Eimear Dunne,
• Dermot Kenny,
• Giorgia Bernardini,
• Ida Kokalari,
• Arianna Marucco,
• Marco P. Monopoli and
• Ivana Fenoglio

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 550–567, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.44

• ) overnight at 37 °C. The peptides were then extracted from the gel matrix and prepared for MS analysis by using Pierce C18 Tips (Thermo Fisher) following the manufacturer's procedure. The peptide samples were analysed on a quadrupole Orbitrap (Q-Exactive, Thermo Scientific) mass spectrometer equipped with a

Luminescent gold nanoclusters for bioimaging applications

• Nonappa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 533–546, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.42

• electrostatic interaction was ruled out. Instead, the authors assumed that it might be a specific peptide motif of HSA that interacts with the bacterial cell wall. The trypsin digestion of Au-HSA NCs was studied and various fragments were identified using MALDI–MS. To confirm further whether the peptides can

• peptide capable of penetrating bacterial biofilms with abundant arginine residue. The hydrogen bonding between the MTU ligands on the surface of Au-MTU NCs and the arginine residues in protamine form a supramolecular host–guest complex, i.e., Au-MTU/Prot. The supramolecular host–guest interactions

• as well as cellular apoptosis studies. Lin et al. reported 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (MUDA)-capped AuNCs (Au-MUDA) as luminescent probes for nuclear targeting and intracellular imaging [86]. The Au-MUDA NCs were conjugated with SV40 (PKKKRKV), a specific peptide for nuclear-localization signal (NLS

Multilayer capsules made of weak polyelectrolytes: a review on the preparation, functionalization and applications in drug delivery

• Varsha Sharma and
• Anandhakumar Sundaramurthy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 508–532, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.41

• in multilayer films such as PGA/PLL, PAH/PAAm and hyaluronic acid (HA)/chitosan when one of the polymeric pair is grafted with an arginine–glycine–aspartic acid (RGD) peptide sequence [104][105][106]. Similarly, the PLL/PGA film showed better cell attachment when plain PGA was replaced with a laminin

• 5 peptide grafted PGA [107]. The homogeneous adsorption of charged lipids such as dipalmitoyldiphosphatidic acid (DPPA), dipalmitoyldiphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and sphingosine over a capsule surface has been achieved in two ways: 1) the adsorption of lipid vesicles via electrostatic interactions

Preparation and in vivo evaluation of glyco-gold nanoparticles carrying synthetic mycobacterial hexaarabinofuranoside

• Gennady L. Burygin,
• Polina I. Abronina,
• Nikita M. Podvalnyy,
• Sergey A. Staroverov,
• Leonid O. Kononov and
• Lev A. Dykman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 480–493, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.39

• tetrasaccharide epitope S. pneumonia type 14 without T-helper peptide did not result in the activation of the immune response of the animals (mice) or the production of specific antibodies. The situation is rather complex as our analysis of the literature data on the use of thiol- and amino-containing glyco-GNPs

• of glyco-GNPs bearing the hexasaccharide epitope of LAM/AG for the activation of a specific immune response against carbohydrate antigens in laboratory animals (rabbits). The results are helpful in the development of synthetic protein- and peptide-free glycoconjugate vaccines based on glyco-GNPs. It

Using gold nanoparticles to detect single-nucleotide polymorphisms: toward liquid biopsy

• María Sanromán Iglesias and
• Marek Grzelczak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 263–284, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.20

• sensitivity of 500 zM, which translates to about ten copies in 30 μL of the sample. To improve the sensitivity of the colorimetric sensors, several groups have proposed to use modified nucleic acids. The most common modified nucleic acids are peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) and locked nucleic acids (LNAs), which

Rational design of block copolymer self-assemblies in photodynamic therapy

• Maxime Demazeau,
• Laure Gibot,
• Anne-Françoise Mingotaud,
• Patricia Vicendo,
• Clément Roux and
• Barbara Lonetti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 180–212, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.15

• PEO-PAsp micelles [146]. A typical recent example describes the introduction of benzylglycidyl ether groups on the hydrophobic backbone of polylactide, in order to improve the loading of aluminium phthalocyanine AlClPc [45]. Using a peptide backbone is another elegant and powerful means to optimize

Molecular architectonics of DNA for functional nanoarchitectures

• Debasis Ghosh,
• Lakshmi P. Datta and
• Thimmaiah Govindaraju

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 124–140, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.11

• dyes and DNA for the detection of damaged DNA [64]. Apart from biological samples, the identification of volatile organic compounds is another important field gaining the attention of researchers. Hairpin DNA and peptide sequences were integrated in a sensor design strategy to develop an optoelectronic

• demonstrated the design and potential application of SFM-supported DNA nanoarchitectures in sensors and bio-optoelectronics. In another study, we reported a molecular architectonic of adenine (A)- and thymine (T)-appended naphthalenediimide derivatives (NDI-AA and NDI-TT, respectively), with peptide nucleic

Internalization mechanisms of cell-penetrating peptides

• Ivana Ruseska and
• Andreas Zimmer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 101–123, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.10

• membranes of different cell types, while showing low cytotoxicity and no immunological response [6]. This class of peptides was first introduced in the late 1980s, with the discovery of the TAT peptide, encoded by the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) by Frankel et al. [9], who showed that the TAT

• peptide could enter cells and translocate into the nucleus. The following decade unfolded with the discovery of the neuronal cell internalization of penetratin, the first ever CPP. Penetratin was derived from the third helix of the homeodomain of Drosophila antennapedia. This discovery was closely

• followed by the development of two peptides used for the noncovalent delivery of proteins and peptides, MPG and Pep-1 [10]. Today, we have a myriad of CPPs and databases which allow one to browse existing CPPs based on chemical modifications, category, cargo or peptide lengths [6]. Classification of cell

Long-term stability and scale-up of noncovalently bound gold nanoparticle-siRNA suspensions

• Anna V. Epanchintseva,
• Julia E. Poletaeva,
• Dmitrii V. Pyshnyi,
• Elena I. Ryabchikova and
• Inna A. Pyshnaya

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2568–2578, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.248

• ; however, it occupies an important place in scientific research. The delivery of therapeutic nucleic acids (TNAs) is of particular importance due to their operation at the genomic level, and various nanoparticles (NPs) have been studied as carriers of TNAs (i.e., metallic, lipid, polymer, and peptide NPs

• nucleic acids [18][19][20][21]. Then, we used AuNP-siRNA as a core for nanoconstruction by covering this with a lipid envelope and doping with an amphiphilic peptide. The construction was shown to penetrate cells that consistently expressed the green fluorescent protein (GFP) and effectively suppress the

Bombesin receptor-targeted liposomes for enhanced delivery to lung cancer cells

• Mohammad J. Akbar,
• Pâmela C. Lukasewicz Ferreira,
• Melania Giorgetti,
• Leanne Stokes and
• Christopher J. Morris

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2553–2562, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.246

• Mohammad J. Akbar Pamela C. Lukasewicz Ferreira Melania Giorgetti Leanne Stokes Christopher J. Morris School of Pharmacy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK 10.3762/bjnano.10.246 Abstract Background: Gastrin-releasing peptide is a member of the bombesin family of peptides. Its cognate

• receptor, gastrin releasing peptide receptor (GRPR), is widely expressed in cancers of the lung, pancreas and ovaries. Gastrin releasing peptide (GRP) is an autocrine growth factor in small cell lung cancer, which has very poor patient outcomes. High affinity antagonist peptides have been developed for in

• vivo cancer imaging. In this report we decorated pegylated liposomes with a GRPR antagonist peptide and studied its interaction with, and accumulation within, lung cancer cells. Results: An N-terminally cysteine modified GRPR antagonist (termed cystabn) was synthesised and shown to inhibit cell growth

Small protein sequences can induce cellular uptake of complex nanohybrids

• Jan-Philip Merkl,
• Malak Safi,
• Christian Schmidtke,
• Fadi Aldeek,
• Johannes Ostermann,
• Tatiana Domitrovic,
• Sebastian Gärtner,
• John E. Johnson,
• Horst Weller and
• Hedi Mattoussi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2477–2482, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.238

• on the ability of functional fusion proteins presenting a lytic gamma peptide, to promote interactions with HeLa cells and delivery of large hybrid nanostructures. Keywords: bioconjugation; cellular uptake; nanoparticle hybrids; polymer encapsulation; self-assembly; Introduction Developing hybrid

• reported that a sizable fraction of the delivered nanoparticles can end up in the cytoplasm, by either circumventing endocytosis through the use of virus-derived peptide sequences, or non-disruptively penetrating the cellular membranes [13]. Escape from endosomal vesicles of once endocytosed nanoparticles

• membranes [18][19]. Here, we report on the use of a lytic gamma peptide (γ-peptide) derived from the Nudaurelia Capensis Omega virus (NωV), which was genetically fused onto maltose binding protein appended with 6-histidine tag, (His6-MBP-γ), to promote the intracellular delivery of hybrid QD-AuNP assemblies

High-tolerance crystalline hydrogels formed from self-assembling cyclic dipeptide

• Yongcai You,
• Ruirui Xing,
• Qianli Zou,
• Feng Shi and
• Xuehai Yan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1894–1901, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.184

• Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China 10.3762/bjnano.10.184 Abstract Peptide-based supramolecular hydrogels, as a new type of biological nanoarchitectonic structure, hold great promise

• their high water content and highly tunable mechanical properties, hydrogels as soft nanoarchitectonics and soft matter are well-suited in extensive applications, such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, and electronic and photonic energy storage [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Self-assembled peptide

• hydrogels with adjustable mechanical and physicochemical properties [29][30][31][32][33]. Peptide-based supramolecular hydrogels have been widely used in biological and nanotechnology fields [34]. However, linear peptide-based hydrogels usually have several deficiencies, such as poor molecular rigidity

Engineered superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) for dual-modality imaging of intracranial glioblastoma via EGFRvIII targeting

• Xianping Liu,
• Chengjuan Du,
• Haichun Li,
• Ting Jiang,
• Zimiao Luo,
• Zhiqing Pang,
• Daoying Geng and
• Jun Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1860–1872, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.181

• Education, 826 Zhangheng Road, Shanghai 201203, China 10.3762/bjnano.10.181 Abstract In this work, a peptide-modified, biodegradable, nontoxic, brain-tumor-targeting nanoprobe based on superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) (which have been commonly used as T2-weighted magnetic resonance (MR

• ) contrast agents) was successfully synthesized and applied for accurate molecular MR imaging and sensitive optical imaging. PEPHC1, a short peptide which can specifically bind to epidermal growth factor receptor variant III (EGFRvIII) that is overexpressed in glioblastoma, was conjugated with SPIONs to

• promising marker for sensitive glioblastoma detection and localization in molecular MR imaging. PEPHC1 (the sequence: HFLIIGFMRRAACGA) is a small peptide that has been identified for specific binding with EGFRvIII [26]. Thus PEPHC1 grafting to PEGylated SPIONs could help to construct a targeted nanoprobe

Biocatalytic oligomerization-induced self-assembly of crystalline cellulose oligomers into nanoribbon networks assisted by organic solvents

• Yuuki Hata,
• Yuka Fukaya,
• Toshiki Sawada,
• Masahito Nishiura and
• Takeshi Serizawa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1778–1788, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.173

• calibrated using peptide standards (ProteoMass MALDI–MS Standard) at 757.3997 (bradykinin fragment 1–7), 1533.8582 Da (P14R), and 2465.1989 Da (ACTH fragment 18–39). The and the PSD of DP were calculated using the following equations: where is the number average molecular weight, Ni is the peak area of i

Enhanced inhibition of influenza virus infection by peptide–noble-metal nanoparticle conjugates

• Zaid K. Alghrair,
• David G. Fernig and
• Bahram Ebrahimi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1038–1047, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.104

• Building, Crown Street, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7ZB, UK 10.3762/bjnano.10.104 Abstract The influenza (“flu”) type-A virus is a major medical and veterinary health concern and causes global pandemics. The peptide “FluPep” is an established inhibitor of influenza virus infectivity in model

• nanoparticles in a variety of tests, including ligand exchange with dithiothreitol. The free FluPep ligand peptide was found to inhibit viral plaque formation in canine MDCK cells (IC50 = 2.1 nM), but was less potent than FluPep itself (IC50 = 140 pM). Nanoparticles functionalised with FluPep ligand showed

• enhanced antiviral activity compared to the free peptides. The IC50 value of the FluPep-functionalised nanoparticles decreased as the grafting density of FluPep ligand increased from 0.03% to 5% (both mol/mol), with IC50 values down to about 10% of that of the corresponding free peptide. The data

Serum type and concentration both affect the protein-corona composition of PLGA nanoparticles

• Katrin Partikel,
• Robin Korte,
• Dennis Mulac,
• Hans-Ulrich Humpf and
• Klaus Langer

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1002–1015, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.101

• the standard technique for the investigation of complex protein mixtures in recent years. Following tryptic digestion of the proteins, peptides were identified using LC–MS/MS on an orbitrap-based mass spectrometer and software-based data evaluation to interpret the peptide fragmentation data. In this

• cysteine and variable modification: oxidation of methionine, allowing for three variable PTM per peptide; (c) precursor mass error tolerance of 5 ppm; (d) fragment mass error tolerance of 1 Da. Proteins with a −log P value > 80 were considered to be reliable. Cell culture HepG2 cells were cultivated in 75

Targeting strategies for improving the efficacy of nanomedicine in oncology

• Gonzalo Villaverde and
• Alejandro Baeza

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 168–181, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.16

• versatile alternatives to antibodies for targeting purposes. The use of relatively short peptide chains provides some important advantages, such as i) only little alteration of the hydrodynamic diameter of the nanoparticles, ii) multigram production with high purity, iii) possibility to attach multiple

• copies of them on the nanoparticle surface which enhances the uptake, iv) possibility to use non-natural aminoacids improving the versatility and v) low immunogenicity [31]. The tripeptide Arg–Gly–Asp (RGD) is probably one of the most employed peptide in the targeting design of nanoparticles. RGD binds

• is cyclized by the disulfide bridge between both terminal cysteines, exhibits significantly a higher tumour specificity than linear RGD [34]. iRGD works in a sequential manner, first it binds to αβ-integrin by the RGD sequence encrypted within the cyclic structure and then, the peptide is broken by

Low cost tips for tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy fabricated by two-step electrochemical etching of 125 µm diameter gold wires

• Antonino Foti,
• Francesco Barreca,
• Enza Fazio,
• Cristiano D’Andrea,
• Paolo Matteini,
• Onofrio Maria Maragò and
• Pietro Giuseppe Gucciardi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2718–2729, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.254

• appearance of some of typical vibrational bands of protein samples such as the phenylalanine (Phe) ring breathing mode at 1004 cm−1 or the amide II band at 1550 cm−1 due to the C–N stretching mode and N–H bending mode of the atoms forming the peptide chain. No signal is detected when the tip is not in

Enhanced antineoplastic/therapeutic efficacy using 5-fluorouracil-loaded calcium phosphate nanoparticles

• Shanid Mohiyuddin,
• Saba Naqvi and
• Gopinath Packirisamy

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2499–2515, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.233

• both in vitro and in vivo studies [5]. Gold nanoparticles conjugated with a trans-activating transcriptional activator (TAT) peptide modification encapsulated with the drug doxorubicin showed enhanced toxicity in brain cancer models [6]. Further, mesoporous silica nanoparticles were successfully used

Colorimetric detection of Cu²⁺ based on the formation of peptide–copper complexes on silver nanoparticle surfaces

• Gajanan Sampatrao Ghodake,
• Surendra Krishna Shinde,
• Rijuta Ganesh Saratale,
• Avinash Ashok Kadam,
• Ganesh Dattatraya Saratale,
• Asad Syed,
• Fuad Ameen and
• Dae-Young Kim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 1414–1422, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.134

• + is based on coordination reactions of Cu2+ with casein peptide-functionalized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), leading to a distinct color change of the solution from yellow to red. The developed method has a good detection limit of about 0.16 µM Cu2+ using 0.05 mL of AgNPs stock solution and a

• typical experiment, casein peptide-modified AgNPs were prepared by reduction of AgNO3 and the functionality of the AgNP–peptide conjugates to coordinate Cu2+ was improved by removing unbound casein peptides. Highly dispersed and stable 20 nm diameter AgNPs had an extinction peak at about 410 nm with a

• Cu2+-binding casein peptide ligands. The solution of aggregates was incubated for 20 min to allow for the coordination to occur. Results and Discussion Synthesis and characterization of casein peptide-capped AgNPs The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of spherical AgNPs immediately caused an absorbance

Enzymatically promoted release of organic molecules linked to magnetic nanoparticles

• Chiara Lambruschini,
• Silvia Villa,
• Luca Banfi,
• Fabio Canepa,
• Fabio Morana,
• Annalisa Relini,
• Paola Riani,
• Renata Riva and
• Fulvio Silvetti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 986–999, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.92

• two parts: a) a peptide specifier, which will act as the recognizing element for plasmin, and which will be bound to pyrenylmethylamine (or, in future, with a cytotoxic drug) through the C-terminus; b) a spacer between the peptide specifier and the nanoparticle. On the basis of previous work by others

• and from our own experience, we thought that at least a tripeptide would be necessary as the peptide specifier to grant selectivity by plasmin or other similar proteases. It is well known that plasmin is selective for lysine (or, to a lesser extent, arginine) as the scissile amino acid (P1), while a

• less polar amino acid, such as leucine, is preferred at P2. For the P3 position, any amino acid is in principle suitable. However, as suggested by Katzenellenbogen et al. [38], a D-amino acid would be preferred for the amino terminus to help prevent degradation of the peptide specifier by other

Liquid-crystalline nanoarchitectures for tissue engineering

• Baeckkyoung Sung and
• Min-Ho Kim

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 205–215, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.22

• , preosteoblasts and fibroblasts, which has a potential for the treatment of spinal cord injuries [91][92]. Osteogenesis and biomineralization can be induced by using 2D substrate matrices made of M13 phages and M13-based peptide amphiphiles, which are in hierarchical nematic, cholesteric, and smectic-like

• peptide amphiphiles can be made to encapsulate living cells in an anisotropic monodomain gel [36]. The gel self-assembly is induced by cooling within a physiological temperature range via nozzle-protrusion into the salty buffer. During the process, human mesenchymal stem cells and HL-1 cardiomyocytes were

Bombyx mori silk/titania/gold hybrid materials for photocatalytic water splitting: combining renewable raw materials with clean fuels

• Stefanie Krüger,
• Michael Schwarze,
• Otto Baumann,
• Christina Günter,
• Michael Bruns,
• Christian Kübel,
• Dorothée Vinga Szabó,
• Rafael Meinusch,
• Verónica de Zea Bermudez and
• Andreas Taubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 187–204, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.21

• stemming from silk, PEO, or residual EtAcAc connected to the TNPs [62]. The O 1s binding energies at 531.8 eV and 533.3 eV can be attributed to Ti–OH motives [63]. The main N 1s peak at 400.1 eV is attributed to the amide and amine groups (peptide bonds) of silk (Table S3, Supporting Information File 1