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Monitoring the Disassembly of Virus-like Particles by 19F-NMR.

Rogen L C LeungMatthew D M RobinsonAlaa A A AjabaliGogulan KarunanithyBrian LyonsRitu RajSaeed RaoufmoghaddamShabaz MohammadTimothy D W ClaridgeAndrew J BaldwinBenjamin G Davis
Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society (2017)
Virus-like particles (VLPs) are stable protein cages derived from virus coats. They have been used extensively as biomolecular platforms, e.g., nanocarriers or vaccines, but a convenient in situ technique is lacking for tracking functional status. Here, we present a simple way to monitor disassembly of 19F-labeled VLPs derived from bacteriophage Qβ by 19F NMR. Analysis of resonances, under a range of conditions, allowed determination not only of the particle as fully assembled but also as disassembled, as well as detection of a degraded state upon digestion by cells. This in turn allowed mutational redesign of disassembly and testing in both bacterial and mammalian systems as a strategy for the creation of putative, targeted-VLP delivery systems.
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