Premium
Tobacco mosaic virus as a carrier for small molecules: Artificial receptor antibodies and superhormones
Author(s) -
Schwyzer Robert,
Kriwaczek Verena Marly
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/bip.1981.360200923
Subject(s) - tobacco mosaic virus , chemistry , receptor , peptide , biophysics , agonist , differential centrifugation , antibody , vesicle , cell membrane , cell surface receptor , virus , membrane , biochemistry , virology , biology , immunology
Peptide agonists covalently attached to tobacco mosaic virus exhibit such unusual properties as superpotency, superaffinity, enhanced resistance towards enzymic degradation, and prolonged action at the target cell. These properties can be exploited for the isolation by density‐gradient centrifugation of membrane vesicles bearing specific receptors for the peptides and for radioactive and fluorescent labeling of cell‐surface receptors. Our observations can be explained by cooperative–affinity phenomena caused by the deployment in space of the agonist molecules.