Photolysis of a peptide with N-peptidyl-7-nitroindoline units using two-photon absorption

Kevin A Hatch; Alfredo Ornelas; Kaitlyn N Williams; Thomas Boland; Katja Michael; Chunqiang Li

doi:10.1364/BOE.7.004654

Photolysis of a peptide with N-peptidyl-7-nitroindoline units using two-photon absorption

Biomed Opt Express. 2016 Oct 19;7(11):4654-4659. doi: 10.1364/BOE.7.004654. eCollection 2016 Nov 1.

Authors

Kevin A Hatch¹, Alfredo Ornelas², Kaitlyn N Williams², Thomas Boland³, Katja Michael⁴, Chunqiang Li⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.
² Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.
³ Department of Metallurgical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA; Border Biomedical Research Center, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA; Border Biomedical Research Center, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA; kmichael@utep.edu.
⁵ Department of Physics, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA; Border Biomedical Research Center, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA; cli@utep.edu.

Abstract

N-acyl-7-nitroindolines have been used as caged compounds to photorelease active molecules by a one- or two-photon excitation mechanism in biological systems. Here, we report the photolysis of a polypeptide that contains 7-nitroindoline units as linker moieties in its peptide backbone for potential materials engineering applications. Upon two-photon excitation with femtosecond laser light at 710 nm the photoreactive amide bond in N-peptidyl-7-nitroindolines is cleaved rendering short peptide fragments. Thus, this photochemical process changes the molecular composition at the laser focal volume. Gel modifications of this peptide can potentially be used for three-dimensional microstructure fabrication.

Keywords: (160.1435) Biomaterials; (160.5335) Photosensitive materials; (190.4180) Multiphoton processes.

Grants and funding

UL1 GM118970/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States