Targeted anion transporter delivery by coiled-coil driven membrane fusion

• Published in: Chemical science (Cambridge) Vol. 7; no. 3; pp. 1768 - 1772
• Main Authors: Mora, Nestor Lopez, Bahreman, Azadeh, Valkenier, Hennie, Li, Hongyu, Sharp, Thomas H, Sheppard, David N, Davis, Anthony P, Kros, Alexander
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01-03-2016
• Subjects: Anions; Chemical compounds; Coiling; Fluorescence; Lipids; Membranes; Transporter; Vesicles
• ISSN: 2041-6520; 2041-6539
• DOI: 10.1039/c5sc04282h

Synthetic anion transporters (anionophores) have potential as biomedical research tools and therapeutics. However, the efficient and specific delivery of these highly lipophilic molecules to a target cell membrane is non-trivial. Here, we investigate the delivery of a powerful anionophore to artificial and cell membranes using a coiled-coil-based delivery system inspired by SNARE membrane fusion proteins. Incorporation of complementary lipopeptides into the lipid membranes of liposomes and cell-sized giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) facilitated the delivery of a powerful anionophore into GUVs, where its anion transport activity was monitored in real time by fluorescence microscopy. Similar results were achieved using live cells engineered to express a halide-sensitive fluorophore. We conclude that coiled-coil driven membrane fusion is a highly efficient system to deliver anionophores to target cell membranes.