Engineering and identifying supercharged proteins for macromolecule delivery into mammalian cells

Supercharged proteins are a class of engineered or naturally occurring proteins with unusually high positive or negative net theoretical charge. Both supernegatively and superpositively charged proteins exhibit a remarkable ability to withstand thermally or chemically induced aggregation. Superpositively charged proteins are also able to penetrate mammalian cells. Associating cargo with these proteins, such as plasmid DNA, siRNA, or other proteins, can enable the functional delivery of these macromolecules into mammalian cells both in vitro and in vivo. The potency of functional delivery in some cases can exceed that of other current methods for macromolecule delivery, including the use of cell-penetrating peptides such as Tat and adenoviral delivery vectors. This chapter summarizes methods for engineering supercharged proteins, optimizing cell penetration, identifying naturally occurring supercharged proteins, and using these proteins for macromolecule delivery into mammalian cells.