Characterizing α-Helical Peptide Aggregation on Supported Lipid Membranes Using Microcantilevers

The structure and configuration changes of multifunctional peptide vectors enhance gene delivery efficiency

We designed a series of peptide vectors that contain functional fragments with the goal of enhancing cellular internalization and gene transfection efficiency. The functional fragments included a cell-penetrating peptide (R₉), a cationic amphiphilic α-helical peptide [(LLKK)₃-H₆ or (LLHH)₃], a stearyl moiety, and cysteine residues. Vectors were also synthesized with D-type amino acids to improve their proteolytic stability. The conformations, particle sizes, and zeta potentials for complexes of these peptides with pGL3 plasmid DNA were characterized by circular dichroism and dynamic light scattering. In addition, cellular uptake of the peptide/DNA complexes and gene transfection efficiency were investigated with fluorescence-activated cell sorting and confocal laser-scanning microscopy. Greater transfection efficiency was achieved with the vectors containing the R₉ segment, and the efficiency was greater than Lipo2000. In addition, the D-type C₁₈-c(llkk)₃ch₆-r₉ had about 7 times and 5.5 times the transfection efficiency of Lipo2000 in 293T cells and NIH-3T3 cells at the N/P ratio of 6, respectively. Overall, the multifunctional peptide gene vectors containing the R₉ segment exhibited enhanced cellular internalization, a high gene transfection efficiency, and low cytotoxicity.

The R₉ containing peptide vectors can improve the gene transfection efficiency.

Histidine-enriched multifunctional peptide vectors with enhanced cellular uptake and endosomal escape for gene delivery

Peptide vectors offer a promising gene delivery approach because of their biocompatibility and ease of functionalization. This article describes the design and evaluation of a series of multifunctional peptides and their gene delivery abilities. The peptides were composed of a cell-penetrating segment, stearyl moiety, cationic amphiphilic α-helical segment, and cysteine and histidine residues. The proton sponge effect of histidine residues at low pH and the α-helical conformation should improve endosomal escape. Inclusion of d-type amino acids should improve proteolytic stability. The conformation, particle size and zeta potential of peptide/DNA complexes were characterized by circular dichroism and dynamic light scattering. Gene transfection efficiency was investigated by fluorescence-activated cell sorting and confocal microscopy. Transfection efficiencies of the designed peptide vectors were better than those of C₁₈-C(LLKK)₃C-TAT and Lipo2000. d-Type peptide C₁₈-c(llhh)₃c-tat showed three times higher transfection efficiency at N/P ratios of 6 and 8 than Lipo2000 in NIH-3T3 and 293T cells. All peptides showed lower cytotoxicity than Lipo2000 in NIH-3T3 and 293T cells. In the presence of trypsin or serum in vitro, d-type peptides showed better stability than l-type peptides. Overall, the designed histidine-enriched multifunctional peptide gene vectors promoted cellular uptake, endosomal escape and gene transfection.

Plasmonic Nanohole Sensor for Capturing Single Virus-Like Particles toward Virucidal Drug Evaluation

A plasmonic nanohole sensor for virus-like particle capture and virucidal drug evaluation is reported. Using a materials-selective surface functionalization scheme, passive immobilization of virus-like particles only within the nanoholes is achieved. The findings demonstrate that a low surface coverage of particles only inside the functionalized nanoholes significantly improves nanoplasmonic sensing performance over conventional nanohole arrays.

Deciphering How Pore Formation Causes Strain-Induced Membrane Lysis of Lipid Vesicles

Pore formation by membrane-active antimicrobial peptides is a classic strategy of pathogen inactivation through disruption of membrane biochemical gradients. It remains unknown why some membrane-active peptides also inhibit enveloped viruses, which do not depend on biochemical gradients. Here, we employ a label-free biosensing approach based on simultaneous quartz crystal microbalance-dissipation and ellipsometry measurements in order to investigate how a pore-forming, virucidal peptide destabilizes lipid vesicles in a surface-based experimental configuration. A key advantage of the approach is that it enables direct kinetic measurement of the surface-bound peptide-to-lipid (P:L) ratio. Comprehensive experiments involving different bulk peptide concentrations and biologically relevant membrane compositions support a unified model that membrane lysis occurs at or above a critical P:L ratio, which is at least several-fold greater than the value corresponding to the onset of pore formation. That is consistent with peptide-induced pores causing additional membrane strain that leads to lysis of highly curved membranes. Collectively, the work presents a new model that describes how peptide-induced pores may destabilize lipid membranes through a membrane strain-related lytic process, and this knowledge has important implications for the design and application of membrane-active peptides.

Supported lipid bilayer repair mediated by AH peptide

High quality and complete supported lipid bilayers are formed on silicon oxide by employing an AH peptide mediated repair step.