Effect of solvent on the self-assembly of dialanine and diphenylalanine peptides

Diphenylalanine (FF) is a very common peptide with many potential applications, both biological and technological, due to a large number of different nanostructures which it attains. The current work concerns a detailed study of the self-assembled structures of FF in two different solvents, an aqueous (H2O) and an organic (CH3OH) through simulations and experiments. Detailed atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of FF in both solvents have been performed, using an explicit solvent model. The self-assembling propensity of FF in water is obvious while in methanol a very weak self-assembling propensity is observed. We studied and compared structural properties of FF in the two different solvents and a comparison with a system of dialanine (AA) in the corresponding solvents was also performed. In addition, temperature-dependence studies were carried out. Finally, the simulation predictions were compared to new experimental data, which were produced in the framework of the present work. A very good qualitative agreement between simulation and experimental observations was found.