title: Supramolecular Nanofibers of Peptide Amphiphiles for Medicine.
abstract: Peptide nanostructures are an exciting class of supramolecular systems that can be designed for novel therapies with great potential in advanced medicine. This paper reviews progress on nanostructures based on peptide amphiphiles capable of forming one-dimensional assemblies that emulate in structure the nanofibers present in extracellular matrices. These systems are highly tunable using supramolecular chemistry, and can be designed to signal cells directly with bioactive peptides. Peptide amphiphile nanofibers can also be used to multiplex functions through co-assembly and designed to deliver proteins, nucleic acids, drugs, or cells. We illustrate here the functionality of these systems describing their use in regenerative medicine of bone, cartilage, the nervous system, the cardiovascular system, and other tissues. In addition, we highlight recent work on the use of peptide amphiphile assemblies to create hierarchical biomimetic structures with order beyond the nanoscale, and also discuss the future prospects of these supramolecular systems.
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University Department of Biomedical Engineering, Evanston, Illinois, 60208 USA ; Institute for Bionanotechnology in Medicine, Northwestern University Chicago, Illinois, 60611 USA.
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Webber
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University Department of Biomedical Engineering, Evanston, Illinois, 60208 USA ; Institute for Bionanotechnology in Medicine, Northwestern University Chicago, Illinois, 60611 USA.
authors.forename: Eric J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Berns
authors.affiliation: Institute for Bionanotechnology in Medicine, Northwestern University Chicago, Illinois, 60611 USA ; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, 60208 USA ; Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, 60208 USA ; Department of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, 60611 USA.
authors.forename: Samuel I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Stupp