Inhibition of Fibrillar Assemblies of L-Phenylalanine by Crown Ethers: A Potential Approach toward Phenylketonuria

In this article, our aim is to investigate the interaction of L-phenylalanine (L-Phe) fibrils with crown ethers (CEs). For this purpose, two different CEs (15-Crown-5 (15C5) and 18-Crown-6 (18C6)) were used. Interestingly, we have observed that both CEs have the ability to arrest fibril formation. However, 18C6 was found to be a better candidate compared to 15C5. Field emission scanning electron microscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy were used to monitor the fibril arresting kinetics of CEs. The arresting process was further confirmed by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance studies.