Elastin-like poly pentapeptide

Scheme 9 Chemical structure of the modified, elastin-like poly (pentapeptide) XIV, found to exhibit photomodulated inverse temperature transition. 59 ...

Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) have been extensively studied due to the fact that they combine similar stimulus response properties to other artificial polymers such as poly(iV-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM) with the advantages of a biologically derived material, that is, it is biocompatible, modular in its composition, and can be obtained by biological processes. ELPs are polypeptides that contain a short, repetitive peptide sequence, most commonly (VPGXG) that is derived from tropoelastin, the precursor of elastin. In this sequence, X represents any amino acid sequence except proline. Polypeptides composed of the pentapeptide repeat unit VPGXG possess a reversible lower critical solution temperature (LCST). Below the LCST, the peptide is soluble... 

---