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Updated: Oct 20, 2025

Solubility of Hydrophobic Compounds in Aqueous Solution Using Combinations of Self-assembling Peptide and Amino Acid
Published on: September 20, 2017
Hydration of Simple Model Peptides in Aqueous Osmolyte Solutions
Aneta Panuszko1, Maciej Pieloszczyk1, Anna Kuffel1
1Department of Physical Chemistry, Gdańsk University of Technology, Narutowicza 11/12, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland.
Abstract:
The biology and chemistry of proteins and peptides are inextricably linked with water as the solvent. The reason for the high stability of some proteins or uncontrolled aggregation of others may be hidden in the properties of their hydration water. In this study, we investigated the effect of stabilizing osmolyte-TMAO (trimethylamine N-oxide) and destabilizing osmolyte-urea on hydration shells of two short peptides, NAGMA (N-acetyl-glycine-methylamide) and diglycine, by means of FTIR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations. We isolated the spectroscopic share of water molecules that are simultaneously under the influence of peptide and osmolyte and determined the structural and energetic properties of these water molecules. Our experimental and computational results revealed that the changes in the structure of water around peptides, caused by the presence of stabilizing or destabilizing osmolyte, are significantly different for both NAGMA and diglycine. The main factor determining the influence of osmolytes on peptides is the structural-energetic similarity of their hydration spheres. We showed that the chosen peptides can serve as models for various fragments of the protein surface: NAGMA for the protein backbone and diglycine for the protein surface with polar side chains.
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