Self-Assembling Diblock Copolymers of Poly[N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide] and a β-Sheet Peptide

The self-assembly of hybrid diblock copolymers composed of poly(HPMA) and P-sheet peptide P11 (CH3CO-QQRFQWQFEQQ-NH2) blocks was investigated. Copolymers were synthesized via thiol-maleimide coupling reaction, by conjugation of semitelechelic poly(HPMA)-SH with maleimide-modified beta-sheet peptide. As expected, CD and CR binding studies showed that the peptide block imposed its beta-sheet structural arrangement on the structure of diblock copolymers. TEM and AFM proved that peptide and these copolymers had the ability to self-assemble into fibrils.