Cyclic dipeptides (CDPs) are heterocyclic 2,5‐diketopiperazines with exceptional structural rigidity, enzymatic stability, and biological activity, exhibiting a substantial tendency to take part in intermolecular interactions. Strong intermolecular interactions driven by unique hydrogen bonding patterns render CDPs with a high propensity to undergo molecular self‐assembly. In this Review, the aim is to provide a comprehensive summary of design strategies used to engineer the molecular self‐assembly of CDPs into functional nano‐ and micro‐architectures and molecular gels with potential applications in biomedical and materials engineering fields.

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Skeletal muscle tissue engineering (SMTE) employs designed biomaterial scaffolds for promoting myogenic differentiation of myoblasts to functional myotubes. Oxidative stress plays a significant role in the biocompatibility of biomaterials as well as in the fate of myoblasts during myogenesis and is also associated with pathological conditions such as myotonic dystrophy. The inherent electrical excitability of muscle cells inspired the use of electroactive scaffolds for SMTE. Conducting polymers attracted the attention of researchers for their use in muscle tissue engineering. However, poor biocompatibility, biodegradability and development of oxidative stress associated immunogenic response limits the extensive use of synthetic conducting polymers for SMTE. In order to address the limitations of synthetic polymers, intrinsically electroactive and antioxidant silk fibroin/melanin composite films and electrospun fiber mats were fabricated and evaluated as scaffolds for promoting myogenesis in vitro. Melanin incorporation modulated the thermal stability, electrical conductivity of scaffolds, fiber alignment in electrospun mats and imparted good antioxidant properties to the scaffolds. The composite electrospun scaffolds promoted myoblast assembly and differentiation into uniformly aligned high aspect ratio myotubes. The results highlight the significance of scaffold topography along with conductivity in promoting myogenesis and the potential application of silk nanofibrous composite as electoractive platform for SMTE.

Surface interactions at the biomaterial-cellular interface determine the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells. Manipulating such interactions through the surface chemistry of scaffolds renders control over directed stem cell differentiation into the cell lineage of interest. This approach is of central importance for stem cell-based tissue engineering and regenerative therapy applications. In the present study, silk fibroin films (SFFs) decorated with integrin-binding laminin peptide motifs (YIGSR and GYIGSR) were prepared and employed for in vitro adult stem cell-based neural tissue engineering applications. Functionalization of SFFs with short peptides showcased the peptide sequence and nature of functionalization-dependent differentiation of bone marrow-derived human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). Intriguingly, covalently functionalized SFFs with GYIGSR hexapeptide (CL2-SFF) supported hMSC proliferation and maintenance in an undifferentiated pluripotent state and directed the differentiation of hMSCs into neuron-like cells in the presence of a biochemical cue, on-demand. The observed morphological changes were further corroborated by the up-regulation of neuronal-specific marker gene expression (MAP2, TUBB3, NEFL), confirmed through semiquantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis. The enhanced proliferation and on-demand directed differentiation of adult stem cells (hMSCs) by the use of an economically viable short recognition peptide (GYIGSR), as opposed to the integrin recognition protein laminin, establishes the potential of SFFs for neural tissue engineering and regenerative therapy applications.

Understanding the roles of various parameters in orchestrating the preferential chiral molecular organization in supramolecular self-assembly processes is of great significance in designing novel molecular functional systems. Cyclic dipeptide (CDP) chiral auxiliary-functionalized naphthalenediimides (NCDPs 1-6) have been prepared and their chiral self-assembly properties have been investigated. Detailed photophysical and circular dichroism (CD) studies have unveiled the crucial role of the solvent in the chiral aggregation of these NCDPs. NCDPs 1-3 form supramolecular helical assemblies and exhibit remarkable chiroptical switching behaviour (M- to P-type) depending on the solvent composition of HFIP and DMSO. The strong influence of solvent composition on the supramolecular chirality of NCDPs has been further corroborated by concentration and solid-state thin-film CD studies. The chiroptical switching between supramolecular aggregates of opposite helicity (M and P) has been found to be reversible, and can be achieved through cycles of solvent removal and redissolution in solvent mixtures of specific composition. The control molecular systems (NCDPs 4-6), with an achiral or D-isomer second amino acid in the CDP auxiliary, did not show chiral aggregation properties. The substantial roles of hydrogen bonding and π-π interactions in the assembly of the NCDPs have been validated through nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), photophysical, and computational studies. Quantum chemical calculations at the ab initio, semiempirical, and density functional theory levels have been performed on model systems to understand the stabilities of the right (P-) and left (M-) handed helical supramolecular assemblies and the nature of the intermolecular interactions. This study emphasizes the role of CDP chiral auxiliaries on the solvent-induced helical assembly and reversible chiroptical switching of naphthalenediimides.