A glutathione-based hydrogel and its site-selective interactions with water

Glutathione (gamma-glutamyl-cysteinyl-glycine; GSH) is ubiquitous biological tripeptide with multiple functions and possible therapeutic uses. The oxidized disulfide form (GSSG) self-assembles into fibrillar aggregates and gels in organic solvents, but not in solvent mixtures with high water content. Here, the disulfide bond has been replaced with a pyrenyl moiety in order to test the ability of GSH to direct noncovalent self-assembly in H2O, when combined with a hydrophobic driving force for aggregation. The resulting GSH-pyrene forms gels in 95% H2O:5% DMSO. The gamma-glutamyl group is critical for gelation, as it is with GSSG organo-gels, inasmuch as neither S-(pyrenyl)-cysteinyl-glycine nor the iodo-acetamido-pyrene precursor gels under any conditions studied. Circular dichroism and fluorescence spectroscopy indicate that the pyrene moieties cluster within the gels. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy reveal fibrous networks with individual strands of approximately 50-100 nm diameter. Saturation transfer difference (STD) NMR studies demonstrate that water interacts strongly with GSH-borne protons in both solution and gel states, but only the gels include water-pyrenyl interactions with significant residence times.