Self-Assembly of Stable Nanoscale Platelets from Designed Elastin-like Peptide–Collagen-like Peptide Bioconjugates

The self-assembly of nanostructures from elastin-like (poly)­peptide (ELP) containing block copolymers has been a subject of intense investigation over decades. However, short synthetic ELPs have rarely been used due to their high inverse transition temperature; the use of short ELPs has largely been limited to polymer conjugates. Motivated by our previous work which successfully overcame this barrier by simply conjugating short ELPs with a triple-helix-forming collagen-like peptide, in this study, we further extend the ELP library to a series of ELPs equipped with aromatic residues and having sequences as short as four pentapeptide motifs. The resulting elastin-like peptide–collagen-like peptide (ELP–CLP) bioconjugates unexpectedly self-assembled into nanosized platelets likely by forming a bilayer structure. Given the previously demonstrated ability of many other CLP conjugates to target collagens and the potential for encapsulation of hydrophobic drugs in collapsed ELPs, these ELP–CLP nanoplatelets may offer similar opportunities for targeted delivery in biomedical and other arenas