Synthesis of peptide nanotubes for fabricating a new type of bio-functional textiles

Abstract

Peptides are one of the most important biological molecules which can be used in drug delivery applications. Peptides are composed of amino acids and are connected together by a peptide bond. These biomaterials have drawn lots of attention in recent years because of their biocompatibility, antibacterial effect, and medical and clinical applications. In this paper, phenylalanine amino acid is used to synthesize peptide nanotubes. The method used for synthesis of peptide nanotubes was self-assembly which is efficient and spontaneous. According to the experimental evaluations of peptide nanotubes, the best concentration of amino acid solution for peptide nanotubes synthesis was 0.005 mg/ml. In this concentration, the tubes show their hollow, long structure. The average diameter of the tubes is 120 nanometer and they have an aspect ratio of 45. To investigate the drug releasing ability of nanotubes, ascorbic acid solution was loaded on them. The solution was applied on cotton fabric to examine the possibility of producing cosmetotextiles. The ability of cotton fabrics to release ascorbic acid in different temperatures and mediums were examined using different conditions. UV-Visible spectroscopy was also used to measure the amount of ascorbic acid release from peptide nanotubes. The antibacterial test was also carried out to determine the antibacterial activity of amino acid molecules on cotton fabric.