Peptide Nanoparticles Serve as a Powerful Platform for the Immunogenic Display of Poorly Antigenic Actin Determinants

In birds, profilin-2a is ubiquitously expressed and contributes to actin-based motility

“…For PFN1-specific antibodies, we used an N-terminal peptide of mouse PFN1 coupled to a nanoparticle as an immunogenicity-stimulating carrier (Schroeder et al, 2008). Within this 16-residue peptide, there are only three differences from the mouse to chicken sequence.…”

“…The monoclonal PFN1 antibody was raised in mice immunized with a fusion protein comprising a peptide sequence spontaneously forming nanoparticles (Schroeder et al, 2008), and an N-terminal peptide of mouse PFN1 (residues 5-18). The reactive epitope was determined on membrane-synthesized peptides with an overlap of 15 amino acids by Pepscan analysis, as described (Schoenenberger et al, 2005) and comprised residues 5-16.…”

A silk purse from a sow's ear—bioinspired materials based on α-helical coiled coils

“…synthetic virus-like particle; SVLP) and derivations such as lipoprotein virus-like particles [49] and coiled coil based vesicles with membrane fusion properties [50 ]. Using such technologies, vaccines to malaria [51,52], toxoplasma [53] and HIV [54] are being developed, but the technology is also a useful scientific tool to target specific epitopes in any protein of interest for example [55]. It is also clear though that such virus-like structures can be used to target specific cells [56 ] and also deliver cargo, as evidenced by the proof principle experiment of encapsulating gold particles within these structures [57] to expand their biomedical application [58].…”

Can non-viral technologies knockdown the barriers to siRNA delivery and achieve the next generation of cancer therapeutics?

“…Furthermore, it has been recently reported that fusogenic/synthetic peptides (Hatakeyama et al, 2009) or pH-sensitive moieties ( [Carmona et al, 2009] and [Akita et al, 2010]) can be attached to various polymers/lipids to assist endosomal escape. However, several studies have shown that multimerising peptides on the surface of the delivery vector cause immunogenicity following repeatedly intravenous administration ( [Schroeder et al, 2009] and [Shi et al, 2010]). …”