Cell Environment-Differentiated Self-Assembly of Nanofibers

Employing cellular environment for the self-assembly of supramolecular nanofibers for biological applications has been widely explored. But using one precursor to differentiate the extra- and intracellular environments to self-assemble into two different nano fibers remains challenging. With the knowledge that the extracellualr environment of some cancer cells contains large amounts of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) while their intracellular environment is glutathione (GSH)-abundant in mind, we rationally designed a precursor Cys(SEt)-Glu-Tyr(H2PO3)-Phe-Phe-Gly-CBT (1) that can efficiently yield amphiphilic 2 and 2-D to self-assemble into two different nanofibers in hydrogels under the sequential treatment of ALP and GSH. We envision that, by employing a click condensation reaction, this work offers a platform for facilely postmodulation of supramolecular nanofibers, and the versatile precursor 1 could be used to kill two birds with one stone.