Photophysical properties of fluorescent self-assembled peptide nanostructures for singlet oxygen generation

Abstract

In this work, a drug delivery system for perillyl alcohol based on the peptide self-assembly containing 3-(2-benzothiazolyl)-7-(diethylamino)coumarin (C6) as a fluorescent additive is obtained, and its photophysical characteristics as well as its release dynamics were studied by steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy. Results proved the dynamics of drug release from the peptide nanostructures and showed that the system formed by the self-assembled peptide and C6, along with perillyl alcohol, presents unique photophysical properties that can be exploited to generate singlet oxygen (1O2) upon irradiation, which is not achieved by the sole components. Through epifluorescence microscopy combined with time-correlated single photon counting fluorescence spectroscopy, the release mechanism was proven to occur upon peptide structure interconversion, which is controlled by environmental changes.