Engineering and identifying supercharged proteins for macromolecule delivery into mammalian cells.

Methods Enzymol
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

Supercharged proteins are a class of engineered or naturally occurring proteins with unusually high positive or negative net theoretical charge. Both supernegatively and superpositively charged proteins exhibit a remarkable ability to withstand thermally or chemically induced aggregation. Superpositively charged proteins are also able to penetrate mammalian cells. Associating cargo with these proteins, such as plasmid DNA, siRNA, or other proteins, can enable the functional delivery of these macromolecules into mammalian cells both in vitro and in vivo. The potency of functional delivery in some cases can exceed that of other current methods for macromolecule delivery, including the use of cell-penetrating peptides such as Tat and adenoviral delivery vectors. This chapter summarizes methods for engineering supercharged proteins, optimizing cell penetration, identifying naturally occurring supercharged proteins, and using these proteins for macromolecule delivery into mammalian cells.

Year of Publication
2012
Journal
Methods Enzymol
Volume
503
Pages
293-319
Date Published
2012
ISSN
1557-7988
DOI
10.1016/B978-0-12-396962-0.00012-4
PubMed ID
22230574
PubMed Central ID
PMC3505079
Links
Grant list
Howard Hughes Medical Institute / United States
R01 GM095501 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States