Presentation and Recognition of Biotin on Nanofibers Formed by Branched Peptide Amphiphiles

Abstract

A branched peptide amphiphile system was designed for enhanced recognition of biotin on nanofibers formed by self-assembly of these molecules. Branching at a lysine residue was used to design peptide amphiphiles that are capable of presenting more than one epitope per molecule. We found that biotinylated branched structures form nanofibers that enhance recognition by the avidin protein receptor relative to similar nanostructures formed by linear peptide analogues. Biotin-avidin binding to the supramolecular nanofibers was characterized by measurement of fluorescence from nanofibers incubated with chromophore-conjugated avidin.