Artificially designed amphiphile

Ariga K, Utakawa T, Michiue A, Kikuchi J-I. Spider-net amphiphiles as artificial lipid clusters design, synthesis, and accommodation of lipid components at the air-water interface. Langmuir 2004 20 6762-6769. 

K. Ariga, T. Urakawa, A. Michiue, J. Kikuchi, Spider-Web Amphiphile as Artificial Lipid Clusters Design, Synthesis, and Accommodation of Lipid Components at the Air-Water Interface , Langmuir, 20, 6762 (2004)... 

Artificial enzymes may be divided into two categories semisynthetic artificial enzymes and synthetic artificial enzymes. Semisynthetic artificial enzymes are partly prepared by biological systems. Catalytic antibodies are typical examples of semisynthetic artificial enzymes. Semisynthetic artificial enzymes are also prepared by modification of a known protein or enzyme at a defined site with a cofactor or new functional group. Synthetic artificial enzymes are prepared totally by synthetic methods. Synthetic artificial enzymes may be either relatively small molecules with well-characterized structures or macromolecules. The term syn-zymes has been coined to designate synthetic polymers with enzyme-like activities. In addition, synthetic artificial enzymes are also obtained with molecular clusters such as micelles and bilayer membranes formed by amphiphiles. 

The structure and composition of peptide amphiphiles are more flexible than those of amphiphilic-peptide. Designed to function as artificial ECM, peptide amphiphiles were in close connection with markers such as RGD in regenerative medicine. RGD is a peptide motif located on the chain of proteins present in the ECM and has been conjugated to a number of gelators to make synthetic and... 

Liu et al. [14] functionalized DWCNTs as artificial water channel proteins. For the first time, molecular dynamics simulations showed that the bilayer structure of DWCNTs is advantageous for CNT-based transmembrane channels. Shielding of the amphiphilic outer layer could guarantee biocompatibility of the synthetic channel and protect the inner tube (functional part) from disturbance of the membrane environment. This novel design could promote more sophisticated nanobiodevices, which could function in a bioenvironment with high biocompatibility. 

---