End-Sealing of Peptide Nanotubes by Cationic Amphiphilic Polypeptides and Their Salt-Responsive Accordion-like Opening and Closing Behavior

One strategy to prepare phase-separated co-assembly is to use the existing assembly as a platform to architect structures. For this purpose, the edge of a sheet or tube-shaped molecular assembly, which is less hydrophilic than the bulk region can become a starting point to build assembly units to realize more complex structures. In this study, we succeeded in preparing rod-shaped nanocapsules with previously unachieved sealing efficiency (>99%) by fine-tuning the properties of cationic amphiphilic polypeptides to seal the ends of neutral charge nanotubes. In addition, we demonstrated the nanocapsule’s reversible responsiveness to salt. In high salt concentrations, a decrease in electrostatic repulsion between cationic polypeptides caused tearing and shrinking of the nanocapsule’s sealing dome, which resulted in an opened nanotube. On the other hand, when salt was removed, the electrostatic repulsion among the cationic peptides localizing on the edge of opened nanocapsules was recovered, and the sealing membrane swelled up like an accordion to create a distance between the peptides, resulting in the restoration of the seal.