Fusogenic peptide modification to enhance gene delivery by peptide-DNA nano-coassemblies.

Endosomal escape is a major obstacle for non-viral nucleic acids delivery. Here, we attached by click reaction a fusogenic peptide (L17E) onto peptide self-assembled disks (∼17 nm), which mimicked the functional subunits of the virus capsid. These peptide disks then spontaneously co-assembled with DNA to form patterned nanostructures (∼100 nm) as viral mimics. This modification did not affect the cellular uptake but enhanced endosomal escape and led to improved transfection in cell culture.