Peptide- and Metabolite-Based Hydrogels: Minimalistic Approach for the Identification and Characterization of Gelating Building Blocks

Abstract

Minimalistic peptide- and metabolite-based supramolecular hydrogels have great potential relative to traditional polymeric hydrogels in various biomedical and technological applications. Advantages such as remarkable biodegradability, high water content, favorable mechanical properties, biocompatibility, self-healing, synthetic feasibility, low cost, easy design, biological function, remarkable injectability, and multi-responsiveness to external stimuli make supramolecular hydrogels promising candidates for drug delivery, tissue engineering, tissue regeneration, and wound healing. Non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic interactions, electrostatic interactions, and π–π stacking interactions play key roles in the formation of peptide- and metabolite-containing low-molecular-weight hydrogels. Peptide- and metabolite-based hydrogels display shear-thinning and immediate recovery behavior due to the involvement of weak non-covalent interactions, making them supreme models for the delivery of drug molecules. In the areas of regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, pre-clinical evaluation, and numerous other biomedical applications, peptide- and metabolite-based hydrogelators with rationally designed architectures have intriguing uses. In this review, we summarize the recent advancements in the field of peptide- and metabolite-based hydrogels, including their modifications using a minimalistic building-blocks approach for various applications.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jun 19, 2023
Source ID
10.3390/ijms241210330

Entities

People

  • Ehud Gazit
  • Om Shanker Tiwari
  • Sigal Rencus-lazar

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory
  • Tel Aviv University

Tags

Readers

  • Nanocomposite Materials Science
  • Trauma Surgery or Emergency Medicine.

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology