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Abstract In neurodegenerative diseases, polymorphism and supramolecular assembly of β-sheet amyloids are implicated in many different etiologies and may adopt either a left- or right-handed supramolecular chirality. Yet, the underlying principles of how sequence regulates supramolecular chirality remains unknown. Here, we characterize the sequence specificity of the central core of amyloid-β 42 and design derivatives which enable chirality inversion at biologically relevant temperatures. We further find that C-terminal modifications can tune the energy barrier of a left-to-right chiral inversion. Leveraging this design principle, we demonstrate how temperature-triggered chiral inversion of peptides hosting therapeutic payloads modulates the dosed release of an anticancer drug. These results suggest a generalizable approach for fine-tuning supramolecular chirality that can be applied in developing treatments to regulate amyloid morphology in neurodegeneration as well as in other disease states.

The extracellular matrix can affect cell behaviour both physically and biochemically. Here, the authors developed a substrate that is based on peptides and nucleic acids hybrids that can dynamically present signals upon demand which regulate cell adhesion and migration, thereby controlling cell organisation.

A hybrid consisting of glucose oxidase-functionalized with hemin/G-quadruplex units is used for the chemiluminescence detection of glucose. The glucose oxidase-mediated oxidation of glucose yields gluconic acid and H2O2. The latter in the presence of luminol acts as substrate for the hemin/G-quadruplex-catalyzed generation of chemiluminescence. The glucose oxidase/hemin G-quadruplex hybrid was immobilized on CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs). The light generated by the hybrid, in the presence of glucose, activated a chemiluminescence resonance energy transfer process to the QDs, resulting in the luminescence of the QDs. The intensities of the luminescence of the QDs at different concentrations of glucose provided an optical means to detect glucose.