Phenylalanine-based fibrillar systems.

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an inborn metabolic disorder characterized by excess accumulation of phenylalanine (Phe) and its fibril formation, resulting in progressive intellectual disability. Several research groups have approached from various directions to understand the formation of toxic amyloid fibrils from the essential amino acid Phe. Different parameters like the nature of the solvent, pH, Phe concentration, temperature, influence the fibril formation kinetics.

Tuning of the Supramolecular Helicity of Peptide-Based Gel Nanofibers.

Helical supramolecular architectures play important structural and functional roles in biological systems. The helicity of synthetic molecules can be tuned mainly by the chiral manipulation of the system. However, tuning of helicity by the achiral unit of the molecules is less studied.

Single Amino-Acid Based Self-Assembled Biomaterials with Potent Antimicrobial Activity.

The design and development of soft biomaterials based on amino acid and short-peptide have gained much attention due to their potent biomedical applications. A slight alteration in the side-chain of single amino acid in a peptide or protein sequence has a huge impact on the structure and function. Phenylalanine is one of the most studied amino acids, which contains an aromatic phenyl group connected through a flexible -CH - unit.

Supramolecular Antiparallel β-Sheet Formation by Tetrapeptides Based on Amyloid Sequence.

Self-assembly of short peptides has emerged as an interesting research field for a wide range of applications. Recently, several truncated fragments of long-chain peptides or proteins responsible for different neurodegenerative diseases were studied to understand whether they can mimic the property and function of native peptides or not. It was reported that such a kind of peptide adopts a β-sheet structure in the disease state.

Self-assembling behaviour of a modified aromatic amino acid in competitive medium.

Aromatic amino acid, specifically phenylalanine (Phe), is one of the most studied building blocks in peptide synthesis due to its importance in biology. It is reported in the literature that Phe-containing peptides have a high tendency to form different self-assembled materials due to efficient aromatic-aromatic interactions. In this article, we have tuned the supramolecular interactions of phenylalanine by making it electron-deficient upon introduction of the nitro group in the ring.

Supramolecular Hydrogel from an Oxidized Byproduct of Tyrosine.

Herein we report for the first time the supramolecular hydrogelation of a derivative of 3-nitrotyrosine (), which is an oxidized byproduct of tyrosine, produced in the presence of reactive nitrogen species in the cell. The 9-fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl (Fmoc) derivative of , , can form self-supported hydrogels at a wide range of pH values (4.5-8.

Biophysical studies on the interaction of a novel oxime based palladium(II) complex with DNA and RNA.

A novel oxime based palladium(II) complex (1) has been synthesized out of the reaction of a Schiff base ligand, 1-phenyl-1-(pyridin-2-yl-hydrazono)-propan-2-one oxime (LH) with Na[PdCl] in THF. Red and diamagnetic 1 has thoroughly been characterized by several analytical and spectroscopic means like CHN, ESI-MS, FAB-MS, FT-IR, H NMR, C NMR, UV-Vis and molar electrical conductivity measurements. Geometry optimizations at the level of DFT reveals that the Pd(II) centre in 1 is nested in a square-planar 'NCl' coordination environment.