Compartments are a fundamental feature of life, based variously on lipid membranes, protein shells, or biopolymer phase separation. Here, this combines self-assembling bacterial microcompartment (BMC) shell proteins and liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) to develop new forms of compartmentalization. It is found that BMC shell proteins assemble at the liquid-liquid interfaces between either 1) the dextran-rich droplets and PEG-rich continuous phase of a poly(ethyleneglycol)(PEG)/dextran aqueous two-phase system, or 2) the polypeptide-rich coacervate droplets and continuous dilute phase of a polylysine/polyaspartate complex coacervate system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExpert Opin Drug Deliv
November 2021
Introduction: The extracellular matrix (ECM) is vital for cell and tissue development. Given its importance, extensive work has been conducted to develop biomaterials and drug delivery vehicles that capture features of ECM structure and function.
Areas Covered: This review highlights recent developments of ECM-inspired nanocarriers and their exploration for drug and gene delivery applications.
Materials that respond to temporally defined exogenous cues continue to be an active pursuit of research toward on-demand nanoparticle drug delivery applications, and using one or more exogenous temperature stimuli could significantly expand the application of nanoparticle-based drug delivery formulations under both hyperthermal and hypothermal conditions. Previously we have reported the development of a biocompatible and thermoresponsive elastin--collagen-like polypeptide (ELP-CLP) conjugate that is capable of self-assembling into vesicles and encapsulating small molecule therapeutics that can be delivered at different rates via a single temperature stimulus. Herein we report the evaluation of multiple ELP-CLP conjugates, demonstrating that the inverse transition temperature ( ) of the ELP-CLPs can be manipulated by modifying the melting temperature ( ) of the CLP domain, and that the overall hydrophilicity of the ELP-CLP conjugate also may alter the .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOver the past few decades, (poly)peptide block copolymers have been widely employed in generating well-defined nanostructures as vehicles for targeted drug delivery applications. We previously reported the assembly of thermoresponsive nanoscale vesicles from an elastin-b-collagen-like peptide (ELP-CLP). The vesicles were observed to dissociate at elevated temperatures, despite the LCST-like behavior of the tethered ELP domain, which is suggested to be triggered by the unfolding of the CLP domain.
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