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Metal Ion‐Induced Self‐Assembly of a Multi‐Responsive Block Copolypeptide into Well‐Defined Nanocapsules
Author(s) -
van Eldijk Mark B.,
Schoonen Lise,
Cornelissen Jeroen J. L. M.,
Nolte Roeland J. M.,
van Hest Jan C. M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201503889
Subject(s) - nanocapsules , self assembly , materials science , nanocages , copolymer , dispersity , metal ions in aqueous solution , supramolecular chemistry , nanocarriers , polylysine , polymersome , metal , nanotechnology , nanobiotechnology , nanoparticle , biophysics , combinatorial chemistry , chemistry , polymer chemistry , polymer , organic chemistry , molecule , metallurgy , composite material , biology , catalysis , amphiphile
Protein cages are an interesting class of biomaterials with potential applications in bionanotechnology. Therefore, substantial effort is spent on the development of capsule‐forming designer polypeptides with a tailor‐made assembly profile. The expanded assembly profile of a triblock copolypeptide consisting of a metal ion chelating hexahistidine‐tag, a stimulus‐responsive elastin‐like polypeptide block, and a pH‐responsive morphology‐controlling viral capsid protein is presented. The self‐assembly of this multi‐responsive protein‐based block copolymer is triggered by the addition of divalent metal ions. This assembly process yields monodisperse nanocapsules with a 20 nm diameter composed of 60 polypeptides. The well‐defined nanoparticles are the result of the emergent properties of all the blocks of the polypeptide. These results demonstrate the feasibility of hexahistidine‐tags to function as supramolecular cross‐linkers. Furthermore, their potential for the metal ion‐mediated encapsulation of hexahistidine‐tagged proteins is shown.