Directed self-assembly of CdS quantum dots on bacteriophage P22 coat protein templates

Abstract

The hierarchical organization of inorganic nanostructures has potential applications in diverse areas such as photocatalytic systems, composites, drug delivery and biomedicine. An attractive approach for this purpose is the use of biological organisms as templates since they often possess highly ordered arrays of protein molecules that can be genetically engineered for specific binding. Indeed, recent studies have shown that viruses can be used as versatile templates for the assembly of a variety of nanostructured materials because of their unique structural and chemical diversity. These highly ordered protein templates can be employed or adapted for specific binding interactions. Herein we report the directed self-assembly of independently synthesized 5 nm CdS nanocrystal quantum dots on ∼60 nm procapsid shells derived from wild-type P22 bacteriophage. The bacteriophage P22 shell is comprised of hexameric and pentameric clusters of subunits known as capsomeres. The pre-synthesized CdS QDs show the corresponding hexameric and pentameric patterns of assembly on these P22 shells, possibly by interacting with particular protein pockets.

Green Synthesis of Metallic Nanoparticles via Biological Entities

“…It has long been known that plants have the potential to hyper-accumulate and biologically reduce metallic ions [44,69]. Because of these interesting properties, plants have been considered a more environment-friendly route for biologically synthesizing metallic nanoparticles and for detoxification applications [66,69].…”

“…Because of these interesting properties, plants have been considered a more environment-friendly route for biologically synthesizing metallic nanoparticles and for detoxification applications [66,69]. Plant extracts containing bioactive alkaloids, phenolic acids, polyphenols, proteins, sugars, and terpenoids are believed to have an important role in first reducing the metallic ions and then stabilizing them as seen in Figure 1 [195,196].…”

“…Another interesting feature of many biological entities is their ability to act as templates in the synthesis, assembly and organisation of nanometre scale materials to fabricate well-defined micro and macro scale structures. For example, viruses have been used to assemble gold and iron oxide nanoparticles to form microstructures [66], bacteriophages have also been used to form intricate nanometre and micrometre scale structures [67,68,69] and phage based assemblies of liposomes have been used in targeted drug delivery procedures [70,71,72,73]. Comparing the above-mentioned biological identities and their potential to become efficient biological factories, synthesizing nanoparticles via plants, is a relatively straight forward and advantageous approach [74,75].…”

Understanding the enormous diversity of bacteriophages: The tailed phages that infect the bacterial family Enterobacteriaceae

“…In addition, phage virions and related particles are being developed as nanocontainers for specific chemical cargoes that can be delivered to specific targets ( e.g. , Nam et al , 2006; Lee et al , 2009; Shen et al , 2010; Cardinale et al , 2012; Hyman, 2012; Culpepper et al , 2013; Farkas et al , 2013; Farr et al , 2013; Kale et al , 2013; Qazi et al , 2013). …”

Phage‐Enabled Nanomedicine: From Probes to Therapeutics in Precision Medicine

“…[47] These assemblies may provide enhanced photoactivity important for tissue imaging, although studies have not yet been carried out on the imaging of tissues with these assemblies. [47] …”