Time-resolved Photoluminescence Determined the Dynamic Self-Assembly for the Interactions Between Nanofibers and Proteins

Abstract

The interactions between supramolecular nanofibers and proteins are crucial for functional biomaterials while there is lack of direct method to interpret supramolecular nanofiber-protein interactions. In parallel to the single-component system, here it is demonstrated that the deconvolution of time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) is valid to depict the dynamic self-assembly process of two-component systems including co-assembly and nanofiber-protein complexes. For a model assembling tetrapeptide FFKY, the effects on the fluorescence lifetime of its fluorescent hydrogelator co-assembling with a non-fluorescent derivative allowed to quantify the assembly parameters of non-fluorescent hydrogelators. Additionally, this method is readily extended to determine the assembly parameters of a disease-related amyloid core sequence KLVFF. Finally, this method is used to monitor the nanofiber-protein complexes. The changes in the self-assembly process indicated the selective interaction between supramolecular nanofiber and specific proteins. Overall, the time-resolved PL served as an adequate methodology for the investigation of nanofiber-protein interactions in vitro under highly dynamic and non-equilibrated conditions.