Supramolecular hydrogels of self-assembled zwitterionic-peptides

Zwitterionic polymer materials have been extensively studied, but zwitterionic peptides supramolecular hydrogel materials are rarely studied. In this study, the preparation of two zwitterionic hydrogels using self-assembled peptides were reported. The hydrogels could be fabricated easily by changing the temperature or enzyme catalysis in a short time. And the differences in structure and function of the zwitterion peptide hydrogels caused by the two preparation methods were also be compared. We found that the hydrogel prepared by enzyme induced self-assembly has better solubility and lower cytotoxicity than that prepared by the heating-cooling process. The result showed the enzyme induced self-assembly way to form zwitterionic peptides supramolecular hydrogel materials could have further biomedical applications. (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.