Diseño de hidrogeles supramoleculares constituidos por pequeños péptidosestudio de autoensamblaje y aplicaciones

Resumen

Peptide-based supramolecular gels have been an area of interest in many fields of research as they are inherently biocompatible and biodegradable functional materials useful for the creation of new therapeutic paradigms in nanomedicine. In addition, they allow the understanding of the pathways involved in the self-assembly of nanostructures and provide information on their more complex structural equivalents. This Doctoral Thesis entitled Design of supramolecular hydrogels made up of small peptides: self-assembly study and applications is divided into a General Introduction and five clearly differentiated chapters. In the General Introduction, a brief explanation is given on the classification of the different types of gels, focusing on supramolecular gels, especially those based on peptides. In addition, it explains why these types of materials are interesting, the methods to form them, how they are organized and the most important applications with some representative examples. The objective of this introduction is to put in context the chapters that will be developed throughout the report. For their part, Chapters I, II, III and IVare focused on a different type of study or application of the peptide supramolecular hydrogels. The contents of the chapters have the following structure: an introduction, that describes the context of the study; some specific Objectives; results and discussion, where the work carried out is shown and compared with the already known data or previously presented in this same report, and finally, conclusions obtained from the study. Chapter V, for its part, briefly exposes other works in which it has collaborated. Chapter I focuses on the concepts of self-assembly and co-assembly that take place in the formation of supramolecular hydrogels and details the use of novel techniques used for the study of these processes. Chapter II, III and IV show different applications for this type of hydrogels. Specifically, Chapter II presents a a new magnetic supramolecular hydrogel with better properties of injectability and mechanical resistance for possible applications in tissue engineering. This chapter introduces peptide-based injectable systems, focusing on the unique features and advantages of peptides for use as injectable systems. In Chapter III a new hybrid organic/inorganic material is proposed that similarly reproduces natural bone biogenesis, in which self-assembly of collagen fibrils and mineralization occur at the same time. The resulting system allows us to broaden our knowledge about bone biomineralization, which is essential to improve medical treatment and promote the development of synthetic materials that can replace damaged bone tissue. Chapter IV focuses on the development of a new hybrid system combining the advantages presented by peptide supramolecular hydrogels with carbon materials for the study of the CISS effect with the aim of creating a system with possible applications in the area of the spintronics. On the other hand,Chapter VI is a compendium of the results obtained in collaboration with other research groups that are not included in the central theme of the doctoral thesis. Finally, an annex is provided showing the list of publications obtained during the predoctoral period alongside a general bibliography that gathers the references used in the development of this memory.