Minimalistic Artificial Catalysts with Esterase-Like Activity from Multivalent Nanofibers Formed by the Self-Assembly of Dipeptides

Imitating and incorporating the multiple key structural features observed in natural enzymes into a minimalistic molecule to develop an artificial catalyst with outstanding catalytic efficiency is an attractive topic for chemists. Herein, we designed and synthesized one class of minimalistic dipeptide molecules containing a terminal −SH group and a terminal His-Phe dipeptide head linked by a hydrophobic alkyl chain with different lengths, marked as HS-Cn+1-His-Phe (n = 4, 7, 11, 15, and 17; n + 1 represents the carbon atom number of the alkyl chain). The His (−imidazole), Phe (−CO2–) moieties, the terminal −SH group, and a long hydrophobic alkyl chain were found to have important contributions to achieve high binding ability leading to outstanding absolute catalytic efficiency (kcat/KM) toward the hydrolysis reactions of carboxylic ester substrates.