Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 16, 2026
09:12
Surface Functionalization of Hepatitis E Virus Nanoparticles Using Chemical Conjugation Methods
Published on: May 11, 2018
7.4K
Reprogramming the Activatable Peptide Display Function of Adeno-Associated Virus Nanoparticles
Nicole N Thadani1, Christopher Dempsey1, Julia Zhao1
1Department of Bioengineering, Rice University , Houston, Texas 77005, United States.
ACS Nano
|December 27, 2017
Summary
Researchers engineered adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsids into mosaic nanodevices for stimulus-responsive functions. Modulating capsid subunit ratios optimizes peptide display, enabling new protein-based nanodevice designs.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology and Nanotechnology
- Virology and Molecular Biology
Background:
- Adeno-associated virus (AAV) possesses an intrinsic activatable peptide display behavior.
- This behavior is shared across several parvoviruses, offering a foundation for novel nanodevice design.
Purpose of the Study:
- To design protein-based nanodevices capable of exogenous functional output upon stimulus detection.
- To leverage AAV's activatable peptide display for creating stimulus-responsive nanodevices.
Main Methods:
- Generated truncated viral capsid subunits of AAV.
- Created mosaic capsids by combining truncated subunits with native capsid components.
- Modulated the ratio of subunits within mosaic capsids to optimize peptide display properties.
Main Results:
- Mosaic capsids demonstrated robust activatable peptide display.
- Truncated subunits formed homomeric capsids, but lost activatable peptide display capability.
- Capsid mosaicism is crucial for achieving desired activatable peptide display functions.
Conclusions:
- The study highlights the importance of capsid mosaicism in AAV for activatable peptide display.
- Findings provide insights into the natural mosaic structure of wild-type AAV capsids.
- This work presents a strategy for reprogramming AAV conformational behavior for stimulus-responsive nanodevices.
Related Concept Videos
02:43Peptide Bonds
83.7K
A peptide bond covalently attaches amino acids through a dehydration reaction. One amino acid's carboxyl group and another amino acid's amino group combine, releasing a water molecule. The resulting bond is the peptide bond. The products that such linkages form are peptides. As more amino acids join this growing chain, the resulting chain is a polypeptide. Each polypeptide has a free amino group at one end. This end has the N-terminal, or the amino-terminal, and the other end has a free...
83.7K
00:50What are Viruses?
128.5K
Overview
128.5K
01:14Introduction to Nuclear Reprogramming
2.3K
Nuclear reprogramming is the process of switching gene expression of one cell type to that of another cell type, usually from a differentiated cell state to an undifferentiated cell state. Differentiation occurs during processes such as development and morphogenesis, tissue regeneration, and malignancy. Cells can also be artificially induced to reprogram their gene expression by techniques such as nuclear transfer, induced pluripotency, and cell fusion. Such techniques have many applications in...
2.3K
01:24Methods of Nuclear Reprogramming
2.2K
Nuclear reprogramming is a process of transforming one cell type into an unrelated cell type by epigenetic changes that alter the cell’s original gene expression pattern. Such epigenetic changes force cells to express a different set of genes, which play a significant role in inducing transformation into other cell types. Nuclear reprogramming offers applications in reproductive cloning for livestock propagation and regenerative medicine — developing patient-specific cells for...
2.2K
01:29Somatic to iPS Cell Reprogramming
2.7K
Reprogramming alters the gene expression in somatic cells, transforming them into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells over several generations. Scientists can reprogram cells by introducing genes for four transcription factors—Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc (OSKM) by viral or non-viral methods. These factors are also known as Yamanaka factors after Shinya Yamanaka, who first generated iPS cells using mouse skin cells. Yamanaka was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012...
2.7K
02:45Functional Groups
89.7K
Functional groups are a group of atoms with characteristic properties, which when linked to the carbon skeleton of a molecule, alter the properties of that molecule. For example, the presence of certain functional groups on a molecule will make them hydrophilic, whereas others will make them hydrophobic. These functional groups are an indispensable part of organic chemistry and important components of biological molecules, such as carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. Each...
89.7K