Coiled coil driven membrane fusion between cyclodextrin vesicles and liposomes.

Area of Science:

• Biophysics
• Materials Science
• Supramolecular Chemistry

Background:

• Membrane fusion is critical in biological processes.
• Understanding fusion between natural and synthetic membranes is challenging.
• Synthetic vesicles offer tunable properties for fusion studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate controlled fusion between phospholipid liposomes and cyclodextrin amphiphile based vesicles (CDVs).
• To elucidate the mechanism of fusion between natural and non-natural bilayer membranes.
• To characterize the resulting hybrid structures and the peptides involved.

Main Methods:

• Lipid and content mixing assays to monitor fusion.
• Cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) for structural analysis.
• Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy to study peptide structure.

Main Results:

• Successful induction of fusion between liposomes and CDVs using coiled-coil forming peptides.
• Characterization of hybrid CDV-liposome assemblies.
• Analysis of the secondary/quaternary structure of peptides at the membrane interface.

Conclusions:

• This work presents the first targeted fusion between natural and non-natural bilayer membranes.
• In situ formation of hybrid CDV-liposome structures provides fundamental insights into fusion mechanisms.
• The study highlights the potential of engineered peptides to control membrane fusion events.