Tripeptide self-assembled hydrogels: unexpected twists of chirality

Abstract

Change of chirality of the first N-terminal amino acid of tripeptides VFF and FFV from l to d results in self-assembled hydrogels at physiological pH from non-assembling l-analogues. Interestingly, changing the chirality of F yields very different nanostructures; nanotapes are observed for (D)VFF, twisted fibers for (D)FFV.