Preparation and Supramolecular Recognition of Multivalent Peptide-Polysaccharide Conjugates by Cucurbit[8]uril in Hydrogel Formation.

Supramolecular hydrogels were fabricated by physically cross-linking phenylalanine functionalized polysaccharides with cucurbit[8]uril in water. We report a facile 2-step method of functionalization of the polysaccharides hyaluronic acid (HA), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC), and guar with the dipeptide Phe-Cys. Addition of cucurbit[8]uril to the functional polysaccharides initiated physical cross-linking on account of strong 1:2 "homoternary" complexes with the pendant Phe residues. In particular, HA and CMC based soft hydrogels displayed impressive viscoelastic behavior which was characterized using rheology, demonstrating accessibility to an array of material properties which would find broad applicability in many fields.