Intracellular nucleic acid delivery by the supercharged dengue virus capsid protein.

ABSTRACT: Supercharged proteins are a recently identified class of proteins that have the ability to efficiently deliver functional macromolecules into mammalian cells. They were first developed as bioengineering products, but were later found in the human proteome. In this work, we show that this class of proteins with unusually high net positive charge is frequently found among viral structural proteins, more specifically among capsid proteins. In particular, the capsid proteins of viruses from the Flaviviridae family have all a very high net charge to molecular weight ratio (> +1.07/kDa), thus qualifying as supercharged proteins. This ubiquity raises the hypothesis that supercharged viral capsid proteins may have biological roles that arise from an intrinsic ability to penetrate cells. Dengue vir

SUBMITTER: Freire JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3855322 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature