An Efficient Mini-Transporter for Cytosolic Protein Delivery

July 28, 2017

Title

An Efficient Mini-Transporter for Cytosolic Protein Delivery

Author

Ning Zhang, Ziqiang Yan, Xue Zhao, Qing Chen, Mingming Ma

Year

2016

Journal

Applied Materials and Interfaces

Abstract

An efficient method to deliver active proteins into cytosol is highly desirable to advance protein-based therapeutics. Arginine-rich cell-penetrating peptides (RPPs) have been intensively studied for intracellular protein delivery, and their applications require further improvement on delivery efficiency, serum stability and cytotoxicity. Designing synthetic analogs of RPPs provides an alternative way to achieve efficient cytosolic protein delivery. Herein we report the design and synthesis of a dendritic small molecule TG6, which is composed of one rigid planar core and four flexible arms with one guanidinium on each arm. Protein structure and function are well preserved in the TG6-protein conjugates, which are readily internalized into cytosol. Our study demonstrates that TG6 is a serum-stable and low-toxic molecular transporter delivering both small cargoes and large active proteins efficiently into cytosol.

Instrument

J-810

Keywords

Circular dichroism, Secondary structure, Biochemistry, Materials