A self-assembling peptide RADA16-I integrated with spider fibroin uncrystalline motifs

Mechanical strength of nanofiber scaffolds formed by the self-assembling peptide RADA16-I or its derivatives is not very good and limits their application. To address this problem, we inserted spidroin uncrystalline motifs, which confer incomparable elasticity and hydrophobicity to spider silk GGAGGS or GPGGY, into the C-terminus of RADA16-I to newly design two peptides: R3 (n-RADARADARADARADA-GGAGGS-c) and R4 (n-RADARADARADARADA-GPGGY-c), and then observed the effect of these motifs on biophysical properties of the peptide. Atomic force microscopy, transmitting electron microscopy, and circular dichroism spectroscopy confirm that R3 and R4 display beta-sheet structure and self-assemble into long nanofibers. Compared with R3, the beta-sheet structure and nanofibers formed by R4 are more stable; they change to random coil and unordered aggregation at higher temperature. Rheology measurements indicate that novel peptides form hydrogel when induced by DMEM, and the storage modulus of R3 and R4 hydrogel is 0.5 times and 3 times higher than that of RADA16-I, respectively. Furthermore, R4 hydrogel remarkably promotes growth of liver cell L02 and liver cancer cell SMCC7721 compared with 2D culture, determined by MTT assay. Novel peptides still have potential as hydrophobic drug carriers; they can stabilize pyrene microcrystals in aqueous solution and deliver this into a lipophilic environment, identified by fluorescence emission spectra. Altogether, the spider fibroin motif GPGGY most effectively enhances mechanical strength and hydrophobicity of the peptide. This study provides a new method in the design of nanobiomaterials and helps us to understand the role of the amino acid sequence in nanofiber formation.