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Updated: May 17, 2026

Ligand Nano-cluster Arrays in a Supported Lipid Bilayer
Published on: April 23, 2017
A versatile coiled-coil tethering system for the oriented display of ligands on nanocarriers for targeted gene
Charles Fortier1, Gregory De Crescenzo, Yves Durocher
1Department of Chemical Engineering, Groupe de Recherche en Sciences et Technologie Biomédicales, Bio-P2 Research Unit, École Polytechnique de Montréal, P.O. Box 6079, succ. Centre-Ville, Montreal, QC, Canada H3C 3A7.
Abstract:
Surface modification of non-viral gene delivery nanocarriers may provide advanced features such as receptor targeting, endosomal escape and nuclear import. We here report the design of a versatile and tunable immobilization protocol to functionalize nanocarriers for improved transient gene expression. Our strategy is based on specific interactions occurring between a coil-tagged ligand and a complementary coil-functionalized nanocarrier. As a proof of concept, targeting of DNA/polyethylenimine polyplexes to the epidermal growth factor receptor of A431 cells was investigated. Coiled-coil-mediated oriented tethering of epidermal growth factor triggered a drastic increase of the internalization rate of the targeted polyplexes. To explore the tunability of our platform, surface density of targeting ligand was varied; our results indicated that the internalization rate varied with the ligand-to-polyplex ratio in a "switch mode" fashion. This work prefigures possible avenues for our coiled-coil platform in multiplex functionalization to address transient gene expression bottlenecks in recombinant protein production.
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