Efficient Gene Transfection through Inhibition of β‐Sheet (Amyloid Fiber) Formation of a Short Amphiphilic Peptide by Gold Nanoparticles

Abstract

The effect of citrate‐stabilized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on the secondary structure of an artificial β‐sheet‐forming cationic peptide has been studied. The AuNPs inhibited β‐sheet formation and led to fragmented fibrils and spherical oligomers with assembled AuNPs on their surface. Besides this structural change, the functional properties of the peptide are also different. Whereas the peptide was unable to act as a vector for gene delivery, formation of a complex with AuNPs allowed successful gene delivery into cells.

Triazole groups as biomimetic amide groups in peptides can trigger racemization

“…The resulting GCP-lysine and GCParginine conjugates have been applied in anion-recoginition, 4,5,6 materials chemistry 7,8,9 and genetransfection. 10,11,12 To broaden the synthetic applicability of amino-acid derived building blocks, synthetic strategies other than the classical amide-coupling have been developed. In this context, -azido functionalized amino acids are of high interest, since they allow the straightforward and high-yielding coupling with alkyne-based coupling partners via the copper-catalyzed alkyne-azide click reaction (CuAAC).…”

Lipofection with estrone-based luminophores featuring aggregation-induced emission properties

“…Besides the variation of the hydrophobic part also the cationic head groups have been varied extensively. Here, especially linear or branched amines 23 and oligoamines 24 and oligoarginines 25,26 as well as articial binding motifs such as guanidinium-carbonylpyrroles [27][28][29] have attracted interest and were able to efficiently induce transfection.…”