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

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.