Rational Engineering of a Designed Protein Cage for siRNA Delivery.
Edwardson, T.G.W., Mori, T., Hilvert, D.(2018) J Am Chem Soc 140: 10439-10442
- PubMed: 30091604 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.8b06442
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
6FDB - PubMed Abstract: 
Oligonucleotide therapeutics have transformative potential in modern medicine but are poor drug candidates in themselves unless fitted with compensatory carrier systems. We describe a simple approach to transform a designed porous protein cage into a nucleic acid delivery vehicle. By introducing arginine mutations to the lumenal surface, a positively supercharged capsule is created, which can encapsidate oligonucleotides in vitro with high binding affinity. We demonstrate that the siRNA-loaded cage is taken up by mammalian cells and releases its cargo to induce RNAi and knockdown gene expression. These general concepts could also be applied to alternative scaffold designs, expediting the development of artificial protein cages toward delivery applications.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Laboratory of Organic Chemistry , ETH Zurich , 8093 Zurich , Switzerland.