Assembly of short amphiphilic peptoids into nanohelices with controllable supramolecular chirality

Renyu Zheng, Mingfei Zhao, Jingshan S. Du, Tarunya Rao Sudarshan, Yicheng Zhou, Anant K. Paravastu, James J. Yoreo, Andrew L. Ferguson and Chun-Long Chen ()
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Renyu Zheng: University of Washington
Mingfei Zhao: University of Chicago
Jingshan S. Du: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Tarunya Rao Sudarshan: Georgia Institute of Technology
Yicheng Zhou: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Anant K. Paravastu: Georgia Institute of Technology
James J. Yoreo: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Andrew L. Ferguson: University of Chicago
Chun-Long Chen: University of Washington

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract A long-standing challenge in bioinspired materials is to design and synthesize synthetic materials that mimic the sophisticated structures and functions of natural biomaterials, such as helical protein assemblies that are important in biological systems. Herein, we report the formation of a series of nanohelices from a type of well-developed protein-mimetics called peptoids. We demonstrate that nanohelix structures and supramolecular chirality can be well-controlled through the side-chain chemistry. Specifically, the ionic effects on peptoids from varying the polar side-chain groups result in the formation of either single helical fiber or hierarchically stacked helical bundles. We also demonstrate that the supramolecular chirality of assembled peptoid helices can be controlled by modifying assembling peptoids with a single chiral amino acid side chain. Computational simulations and theoretical modeling predict that minimizing exposure of hydrophobic domains within a twisted helical form presents the most thermodynamically favorable packing of these amphiphilic peptoids and suggests a key role for both polar and hydrophobic domains on nanohelix formation. Our findings establish a platform to design and synthesize chiral functional materials using sequence-defined synthetic polymers.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46839-y

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