Structurally plastic peptide capsules for synthetic antimicrobial viruses

DOI: 10.1039/C5SC03260A

Authors: Valeria Castelletto (National Physical Laboratory, UK) , Emiliana De Santis (National Physical Laboratory, UK) , Hasan Alkassem (National Physical Laboratory, UK) , Baptiste Lamarre (National Physical Laboratory, UK) , James Noble (National Physical Laboratory) , Santanu Ray (National Physical Laboratory, UK) , Angelo Bella (National Physical Laboratory, UK) , Jonathan R. Burns (National Physical Laboratory, UK) , Bart W. Hoogenboom (London Centre for Nanotechnology) , Maxim G. Ryadnov (National Physical Laboratory)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Chemical Science

State: Published (Approved)
Published: December 2015
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 10083

Abstract: A conceptual design for artificial antimicrobial viruses is described. The design emulates viral assembly and function to create self-assembling peptide capsules that promote efficient gene delivery and silencing in mammalian cells. Unlike viruses, however, the capsules are antimicrobial, which allows them to exhibit a dual biological function: gene transport and antimicrobial activity. Unlike other antimicrobials, the capsules act as pre-concentrated antimicrobial agents that elicit rapid and localised membrane-disrupting responses by converting into individual pores at their precise landing positions on membranes. The concept holds promise for engineering virus-like scaffolds with biologically tuneable properties.

Subject Areas: Biology and Bio-materials, Medicine, Materials


Instruments: B21-High Throughput SAXS , B23-Circular Dichroism

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