Progress in Photo-Responsive Polypeptide Derived Nano-Assemblies

Stimuli-responsive polymeric materials have attracted significant attention in a variety of high-value-added and industrial applications during the past decade. Among various stimuli, light is of particular interest as a stimulus because of its unique advantages, such as precisely spatiotemporal con...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMicromachines (Basel) Vol. 9; no. 6; p. 296
Main Authors Yang, Lu, Tang, Houliang, Sun, Hao
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland MDPI AG 13.06.2018
MDPI
Subjects
Amino acids
Assemblies
Biocompatibility
Biodegradability
Chemistry
Coumarin
Crosslinking
Dismantling
Industrial applications
Isomerization
Light
Light irradiation
Morphing
Nanomaterials
Nanoparticles
Photochemistry
Polymerization
Polymers
Polypeptides
Review
Stimuli
United States > US
stimuli-responsive polymers
self-assembly
morphological transformation
synthetic polypeptide
photo-sensitive
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Summary:Stimuli-responsive polymeric materials have attracted significant attention in a variety of high-value-added and industrial applications during the past decade. Among various stimuli, light is of particular interest as a stimulus because of its unique advantages, such as precisely spatiotemporal control, mild conditions, ease of use, and tunability. In recent years, a lot of effort towards the synthesis of a biocompatible and biodegradable polypeptide has resulted in many examples of photo-responsive nanoparticles. Depending on the specific photochemistry, those polypeptide derived nano-assemblies are capable of crosslinking, disassembling, or morphing into other shapes upon light irradiation. In this mini-review, we aim to assess the current state of photo-responsive polypeptide based nanomaterials. Firstly, those ‘smart’ nanomaterials will be categorized by their photo-triggered events (i.e., crosslinking, degradation, and isomerization), which are inherently governed by photo-sensitive functionalities, including O-nitrobenzyl, coumarin, azobenzene, cinnamyl, and spiropyran. In addition, the properties and applications of those polypeptide nanomaterials will be highlighted as well. Finally, the current challenges and future directions of this subject will be evaluated.
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ISSN:2072-666X
2072-666X
DOI:10.3390/mi9060296