Artificial Protein Cage with Unusual Geometry and RegularlyEmbedded Gold Nanoparticles

Artificial protein cages have great potential in anumber of areas including cargo capture and delivery and as artificialvaccines. Here, we investigate an artificial protein cage whoseassembly is triggered by gold nanoparticles. Using biochemical andbiophysical methods we were able to determine both the mechanicalproperties and the gross compositional features of the cage which,combined with mathematical models and biophysical data, allowedthe structure of the cage to be predicted. The accuracy of the overallgeometrical prediction was confirmed by the cryo-EM structuredetermined to sub-5 A resolution. This showed the cage to benonregular but similar to a dodecahedron, being constructed from 1211-membered rings. Surprisingly, the structure revealed that the cage also contained a single, small gold nanoparticle at each 3-foldaxis meaning that each cage acts as a synthetic framework for regular arrangement of 20 gold nanoparticles in a three-dimensionallattice

Automated summary

The structure of an artificial protein cage triggered by gold nanoparticles was successfully predicted, and it was discovered that each cage contains gold nanoparticles, which can be used to achieve regular arrangement of the nanoparticles.