Construction of spherical virus-inspired peptide nanoassemblies

Applications of natural viruses to nanotechnology have attracted much attention due to their fascinating nanostructures. However, chemical strategy to de novo design virus-like nanostructures is still in its infancy. In this review article, we describe novel C-3-symmetric molecular design of peptides and their characteristic self-assembly into virus-like nanostructures. We have developed trigonal conjugates of beta-sheet-forming peptides, trigonal conjugates of glutathione and a viral beta-annulus peptide fragment. Polymer Journal (2012) 44, 469-474; doi:10.1038/pj.2012.16; published online 14 March 2012