Recognition and Stabilization of Peptide α-Helices Using Templatable Nanoparticle Receptors

摘要

We have demonstrated that trimethylammonium-functionalized MMPCs effectively recognize and stabilize a tetra-aspartate peptide in water. It is observed that while initial electrostatic complementarity mediates binding, further stabilization is achieved through additional favorable interactions on templation of nanoparticle to the peptide surface. This enhances the potential utility of MMPCs in helix recognition, which can be applied toward targeting helical domains in proteins with significant affinity and selectivity. Additionally, the ability of the monolayer to template to the peptide surface provides a potent tool to generate protein surface-specific designed MMPCs through strategies such as monolayer cross-linking. Such studies are underway and will be reported in due course.