Journal
ACS NANO
Volume 4, Issue 7, Pages 3853-3860Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/nn1005073
Keywords
virus assembly; functionalized nanoparticles; brome mosaic virus; capsid; bioinspired materials; protein cage; charge density
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Funding
- National Science Foundation [0832651, 0708590]
- National Institutes of Health [GM081029]
- Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing [DMI-0531171]
- Directorate For Engineering
- Div Of Chem, Bioeng, Env, & Transp Sys [0708590] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Self-assembling icosahedral protein cages have potencially useful physical and chemical characteristics for a variety of nanotechnology applications, ranging from therapeutic or diagnostic vectors to building blocks for hierarchical materials. For application-specific functional control of protein cage assemblies, a deeper understanding of the interaction between the protein cage and its payload is necessary. Protein-cage encapsulated nanoparticles, with their well-defined surface chemistry, allow for systematic control over key parameters of encapsulation such as the surface charge, hydrophobicity, and size. Independent control over these variables allows experimental testing of different assembly mechanism models. Previous studies done with Brome mosaic virus capsids and negatively charged gold nanoparticles indicated that the result of the self-assembly process depends on the diameter of the particle. However, in these experiments, the surface-ligand density was maintained at saturation levels, while the total charge and the radius of curvature remained coupled variables, making the interpretation of the observed dependence on the core size difficult. The current work furnishes evidence of a critical surface charge density for assembly through an analysis aimed at decoupling the surface charge and the core size.
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