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Structurally plastic peptide capsules for synthetic antimicrobial viruses
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