Specific Internalisation of Gold Nanoparticles into Engineered Porous Protein Cages via Affinity Binding.

ABSTRACT: Porous protein cages are supramolecular protein self-assemblies presenting pores that allow the access of surrounding molecules and ions into their core in order to store and transport them in biological environments. Protein cages' pores are attractive channels for the internalisation of inorganic nanoparticles and an alternative for the preparation of hybrid bioinspired nanoparticles. However, strategies based on nanoparticle transport through the pores are largely unexplored, due to the difficulty of tailoring nanoparticles that have diameters commensurate with the pores size and simultaneously displaying specific affinity to the cages' core and low non-specific binding to the cages' outer surface. We evaluated the specific internalisation of single small gold nanoparticles, 3.9 nm in d

SUBMITTER: Paramelle D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5021291 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature