"Michael" nanocarriers mimicking transient-binding disordered proteins
We report herein a very efficient synthesis strategy for the construction of artificial transient-binding protein-mimic nano-objects. Michael addition-mediated multidirectional self-assembly of individual polymeric chains at r.t. leads to >Michael> nanocarriers that in solution resemble disordered multidomain proteins, as revealed by a combination of small angle neutron scattering measurements and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation results, whereas in the dry state adopt a collapsed, globular morphology, as observed by transmission electron microscopy. This extended-to-compact morphology transition taking place upon solvent removal is of paramount importance, among other applications, for the construction of efficient biosensors based on immobilized protein-mimic nano-objects and for the development of transient vitamin-binding systems. As a proof of concept, we show the controlled delivery of vitamin B9 from these novel transient-binding nanocarriers. © 2013 American Chemical Society. ; Financial support from the projects MAT2012-31088 (MINECO) and IT-654-13 (GV) is acknowledged. A. S.-S. thanks the PhD grant support of Basque Government. Has been supported by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme through the 'Research Infrastructures' action of the 'Capacities' Programme, NMI3-II Grant number 283883. ; Peer Reviewed