Self-assembled artificial viral capsids bearing coiled-coils at the surface

Org Biomol Chem. 2017 Jun 14;15(23):5070-5077. doi: 10.1039/c7ob00998d.

Abstract

In order to construct artificial viral capsids bearing complementary dimeric coiled-coils on the surface, a β-annulus peptide bearing a coiled-coil forming sequence at the C-terminus (β-annulus-coiled-coil-B) was synthesized by a native chemical ligation of a β-annulus-SBn peptide with a Cys-containing coiled-coil-B peptide. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images revealed that the β-annulus-coiled-coil-B peptide self-assembled into spherical structures of about 50 nm in 10 mM Tris-HCl buffer. Circular dichroism (CD) spectra indicated the formation of the complementary coiled-coil structure on the spherical assemblies. Addition of 0.25 equivalent of the complementary coiled-coil-A peptide to the β-annulus-coiled-coil-B peptide showed the formation of spherical assemblies of 46 ± 14 nm with grains of 5 nm at the surface, whereas addition of 1 equivalent of the complementary coiled-coil-A peptide generated fibrous assemblies.

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Biomimetic Materials / chemistry*
  • Capsid / chemistry*
  • Models, Molecular
  • Peptides / chemistry*
  • Protein Structure, Secondary
  • Surface Properties

Substances

  • Peptides