ABSTRACT Inspired by the prolonged metabolism displayed by para substituted fluorinated drugs, we intended to design two isomers Fmoc-(4F)-Phe-Phe-OH (hydrogelator I) & Fmoc-(3F)-Phe-Phe-OH (hydrogelator II) to explore the propensity of fluorine substitution in the aromatic ring of phenylalanine, in assisting or disrupting the gelation phenomena. However, our experimental observation reveals that hydrogelator I and II containing fluorines in the aromatic core illustrates excellent hydrogelation ability in comparison to the unsubstituted analogue, in accordance with the computational findings. Indeed, the hydrogelators displayed b-sheet with a fibrillar tape like morphology and were found to be biocompatible. We developed hydrogel nanoparticles (HNPs) that exhibited particle size less than 200 nm, and were found to release the antineoplastic drugs, 5Fluorouracil, curcumin and doxorubicin in a sustained manner depending on the architectural parameters of the drugs. Thus the prospective use of these compounds holds immense promise as a potential tool for future drug delivery applications.

中文翻译：

---

基于氟化二苯丙氨酸类似物的超级凝胶剂：一种强调抗肿瘤药物持续释放的模板

摘要 受对位取代氟化药物延长代谢的启发，我们打算设计两种异构体 Fmoc-(4F)-Phe-Phe-OH（水凝胶剂 I）和 Fmoc-(3F)-Phe-Phe-OH（水凝胶剂 II）探索苯丙氨酸芳环中氟取代的倾向，有助于或破坏凝胶现象。然而，我们的实验观察表明，根据计算结果，与未取代的类似物相比，芳香核中含有氟的水凝胶剂 I 和 II 显示出优异的水凝胶化能力。事实上，水凝胶剂显示出具有纤维状带状形态的 b 层，并被发现具有生物相容性。我们开发了粒径小于 200 nm 的水凝胶纳米粒子 (HNPs)，并且被发现根据药物的结构参数以持续的方式释放抗肿瘤药物 5 氟尿嘧啶、姜黄素和多柔比星。因此，这些化合物的预期用途作为未来药物递送应用的潜在工具具有巨大的前景。