title: Bottom-up assembly of hydrogels from bacteriophage and Au nanoparticles: the effect of cis- and trans-acting factors.
abstract: Hydrogels have become a promising research focus because of their potential for biomedical application. Here we explore the long-range, electrostatic interactions by following the effect of trans-acting (pH) and cis-acting factors (peptide mutation) on the formation of Au-phage hydrogels. These bioinorganic hydrogels can be generated from the bottom-up assembly of Au nanoparticles (Au NP) with either native or mutant bacteriophage (phage) through electrostatic interaction of the phage pVIII major capsid proteins (pVIII). The cis-acting factor consists of a peptide extension displayed on the pVIII that mutates the phage. Our results show that pH can dictate the direct-assembly and stability of Au-phage hydrogels in spite of the differences between the native and the mutant pVIII. The first step in characterizing the interactions of Au NP with phage was to generate a molecular model that identified the charge distribution and structure of the native and mutant pVIII. This model indicated that the mutant peptide extension carried a higher positive charge relative to the native pVIII at all pHs. Next, by monitoring the Au-phage interaction by means of optical microscopy, elastic light scattering, fractal dimension analysis as well as Uv-vis and surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy, we show that the positive charge of the mutant peptide extension favors the opposite charge affinity between the phage and Au NP as the pH is decreased. These results show the versatility of this assembly method, where the stability of these hydrogels can be achieved by either adjusting the pH or by changing the composition of the phage pVIII without the need of phage display libraries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America.
authors.forename: Glauco R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Souza
authors.forename: Esra
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yonel-Gumruk
authors.forename: Davin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Easley
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rangel
authors.forename: Liliana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guzman-Rojas
authors.forename: J Houston
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Wadih
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Arap
authors.forename: Renata
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pasqualini
mesh_terms: D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000737:chemistry*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D020100:Hydrogels; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance
chemical_list: D020100:Hydrogels; D006046:Gold