Stable micelles based on a mixture of coiled-coils: the role of different oligomeric states. Issue 16 (11th April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ma, Dan; Keten, Sinan
• Is Part Of: Nanoscale. Volume 10:Issue 16(2018)
• Page Start: 7589
• Page End: 7596
• Publication Date: 2018-04-11
• Subjects: Nanoscience -- Periodicals; Nanotechnology -- Periodicals; 620.505
• DOI: 10.1039/c7nr09695j
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2040-3364

Abstract

Abstract : Phase separation in micelles made up of mixtures of tri- and tetra-meric coiled coils with alkyl and PEG conjugates. Abstract : Homomeric micelles with tunable size, shape and stability have been extensively studied for biomedical applications such as drug carriers. However, designing the local valency and self-assembled morphology of nanophase-separated multicomponent micelles with varied ligand binding possibilities remains challenging. Here, we present micelles self-assembled from amphiphilic peptide–PEG–lipid hybrid conjugates, where the peptides can be either a 3-helix or 4-helix coiled-coil. We demonstrate that the micelle size and sphericity can be controlled based on the coiled-coil oligomeric state. Using theory and coarse-grained dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations in an explicit solvent simulation, we studied the distribution of 3-helix and 4-helix conjugates within the mixed micelles and observed self-organization into nanodomains within the mixed micelle. We discovered that the phase separation behavior is dictated by the geometry mismatch in the alkyl chain length from different coiled-coil oligomeric states. Our analyses of the self-assembly tendency and drug delivery potency of mixed micelles with controlled multivalency provide important insights into the assembly and formation of nanophase-separated micelles.