Peptide‐Ligand Cooperative Interplay Drives Gold Nanoparticle Encapsulation by Protein Cages
Wenhui Li, Niklas Mucke, Michael Rütten, Tommaso L Schweers, Tobias Beck, Vikram Jadhao · 2026
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Description
Protein cages can swallow gold particles, but loading them on purpose takes more than luck. Wenhui Li and co-authors worked out what drives that loading in a 2026 study. Their cages are encapsulins, tiny shells bacteria use as reaction rooms. Lab tests varied salt levels, particle coatings, and short peptide tags meant to guide cargo in. Computer models then mapped the energy of the first binding step.
Salt set three regimes: clumping at low salt, clean loading in the middle, and empty cages at high salt. Coatings and peptides worked as a team inside that window. Coatings drew the shell close, while peptides stretched out to meet it. That teamwork kept loading steady across a wide salt range.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Wenhui Li, Niklas Mucke, Michael Rütten, Tommaso L Schweers, Tobias Beck, Vikram Jadhao |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 49 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |